Solna Launches To Take A Stab At Late Payments

A new U.K.-based B2B FinTech, Solna, is making its debut on the market, with late supplier payments at the center of its initiatives.

The company issued a press release Thursday (Sept. 13) introducing Solna’s strategy to address cash flow management struggles resulting from late supplier payments. The company deploys credit scoring data, enabling freelancers and micro-businesses to more easily assess the financial health of their corporate customers and predict the reliability their clients will pay invoices on time.

Further, the Solna platform will bridge SMBs to financial services they can use to further address late payment issues based on their individual needs, and pre-approving them for financing from third parties. Its invoicing solution also lets businesses chase down unpaid bills.

“Your average small business waits about 72 days for their invoices to clear, during which you’re spending an inordinate amount of time chasing down payments, having awkward conversations, and putting important things on hold,” said Solna cofounder and CEO Inna Kaushan in a statement. “We designed Solna to give businesses the power to stay on top of their cash flow, get paid more efficiently, and manage risk more effectively.”

Solna will target micro-businesses, startups and freelancers, as well as accounting professionals who may want to link their existing small business clients to an invoicing solution.

The company announced its launch in April at Finovate, and while the solution is now live in the U.K., Solna said its invoicing and risk management services will expand outside the U.K. later this year.

In its announcement the company pointed to data from the U.K.’s Bacs Payment Schemes, which found that nearly one-quarter of small firms have had to rely on external financing to keep pace with overheads. Separate data, the company noted, also revealed that last year marked a four-year high for small business collapses in the U.K.