London-based Chaser snags $4 million to help SMEs run down unpaid invoices

Chaser, the London-based provider of credit control cloud software, has announced a $4 million funding round led by Fuel Ventures, with participation from Sussex Place Ventures, Beacon Capital, and Craig Winkler. David Tuck founded the cloud accounting startup in 2014 to help small businesses cope with financial challenges, such as late payments, which restrict cash flow and curtail growth. Indeed, the company's name comes from the occasional and unfortunate need to chase down clients to pay invoices. Chaser’s software automates this process and provides insight to business owners about how to best manage the credit granted to customers. Explaining the market need for his product, Tuck said: “SMEs in the UK are currently owed over £225 billion in unpaid invoices. For many, selling on payment terms is a broken experience. This is due to late payments, which straitjacket growth. Since our launch five years ago, we have freed businesses from the burden of late payments. We’re extremely proud of what we have accomplished since 2014 and, with the introduction of our new Virtual Credit Control Service Incubator, we can help accountants and bookkeepers to level the playing field for SMEs”. 

The incubator he mentions is also called the ChaseAcademy, a 12-week programme that teaches accountants and bookkeepers how to provide professional credit control to their SME clients, via the Chaser software. For those small and medium-sized businesses who don’t have an in-house finance team, the option to fully outsource credit control to a trusted partner could be a relief. Commenting on the funding, Mark Pearson of Fuel Ventures said: “We’re excited to have joined Chaser on their journey as they continue to deliver effective and ground-breaking Cloud Credit Control. They have already established themselves as a market leader and with the introduction of ChaseAcademy, will only continue to innovate the Cloud Accounting landscape. They have a very exciting future ahead of them and we are thrilled to be a part of it.” The investment will help expand the product development team, which will roll out a variety of new features in 2020.