Small business loan platform Funding Circle announced the debut of its first payments facility, FlexiPay, in a Thursday (Sept. 2) press release.
A buy now pay later (BNPL) option, FlexiPay allows businesses to make installment payments over three months for any U.K. invoice or supplier payment, according to the release. Businesses can apply within minutes and receive authorization for 2,000 pounds ($2,766) to 30,000 pounds ($41,470).
FlexiPay incorporates Funding Circle’s Instant Decision Lending, which analyzes risk models, cuts application time to about six minutes and arrives at a loan authorization within nine seconds, according to the company. The technology serves about half of all Funding Circle term loan borrowers.
The BNPL option debuted in a beta version to a selection of Funding Circle’s current customers, offering interest-free repayments and a 3% fee per transaction. New customers can join the wait list to access FlexiPay as the service is expanded in the coming months.
Thursday’s announcement comes on the heels of a recent PYMNTS report that Funding Circle had expanded its relationship with Maryland-based Congressional Bank to offer more small business lending. Initially, the bank purchased small business loans through Funding Circle. More recently, Congressional Bank took over the risk analytics technology to improve small business loan underwriting.
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In addition to the FlexiPay wait list, the 11-year-old London-based lender is offering a wait list for a business credit card, which features 1% unlimited cash back and no payments for 30 days. Businesses can join this wait list to stay updated on early access to the card.
In addition to having flexibility to pay bills over a three-month period, small businesses should have an influx of loan funding available, following PYMNTS’ report this week that China’s central bank will be providing $46.4 billion in low-cost funds to aid banks in providing financial support for small- to medium-sized businesses.
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