London-based factoring startup Storfund closes £300 million deal

Storfund, a UK startup that provides e-commerce retailers with immediate payments on sales, a.k.a. factoring, has raised £300 million in a new financing deal. Fintech financing specialist Fasanara Capital has committed £100 million effective immediately, with another £200 million deliverable upon Storfund’s expansion into China. To date, the company has raised a total of £326.5 million.

With e-commerce sale figures clocking in at $541 billion in just the first 8 months of this year alone, one of the key stumbling blocks for the entire industry is banking technology. While marketplaces traditionally withhold retailers payouts, namely to faciliatew returns and refunds, this puts these retailers between a rock and hard place. They want to continue growth, build product catalogues, and restock ever faster, without the capital to do so … you seen the catch-22 here.

Storfund is Amazon’s only approved global providers of factoring, a process whereby retailers and can receive immediate payment on sales, and is delivering it’s service to 17 out of 20 of Amazon’s marketplaces. To put this in simpler terms, Storfund fronts the money to a retailer, and then agreed to be paid by the marketplace.

In addition to Amazon, Storfund provides other marketplaces with attractive payment terms for retailers, often a key factor in whether this retailer will choose to list with the marketplace or not.

“Marketplaces have been the big winners in the rise of ecommerce; they provide an unrivalled platform for retailers of all sizes to expand throughout the world and they’ve built the necessary infrastructure to support this – but they know their retailers can’t thrive without liquidity and fast access to cash,” said Storfund co-founder Akbar Ahsan. “It’s the demand from both ends – retailers and marketplaces – which makes Storfund’s service so attractive.”

On the investment, Fasanara Capital’s CEO Francesco Filia comments, “Storfund is a true tech-first company, capable of delivering globally; it just needs the funds to reach scale. They’ve built their brand on transparency, particularly on pricing, and on international reach which has helped them win large, experienced retailers as clients.”