London fintech startup Nimbla raises $6.9M to offer invoice insurance that protects businesses against customer defaults

Doing business in today’s global economy is riskier than ever. With cash flow being the lifeblood of most small businesses, unpaid invoices and a lack of cash on hand could force many companies to shut down and go out of business. For example, U.S. small businesses owed $825 billion in unpaid invoices, according to a study by U.S. Bank.

Unfortunately, this problem is not limited to small businesses in the United States. The same can be said about businesses across the pond. For European businesses, one tech startup is on a mission to offer invoice insurance at the point of issue.

Enter Nimbla, a London-based fintech startup that gives businesses the confidence to trade with peace of mind using invoice insurance with quotes provided within seconds. Nimbla’s proprietary digital automated credit risk platform is able to process requests immediately and provide real-time quotes. Invoice insurance is a new product that enables businesses to insure single invoices against non-payment in seconds, from just 0.2% of their value.

Today, Nimbla announced it has raised $6.9 million (£5.1 million) led by Silicon Valley venture fund Fin VC with participation from Barclays Bank. The funding comes as Nimbla seeks to scale its operations with increased demand from embedded credit risk solutions through its API with banks and alternative lending platforms.

Founded in 2016 by Flemming Bengtsen, Nimbla has worked directly with businesses and brokers to provide invoice insurance cover and more recently has launched a new API for Banks, fintech lenders and B2B platforms to enable more business to access the service. Nimbla partnered with Barclays Bank in 2020 to give their one million small business customers the ability to take out insurance against individual invoices, rather than the whole book.

Nimbla’s digital insurance platform backed by expert risk analysts, allows businesses to check a buyer’s ability to pay and insure individual invoices against non-payment in a fast and affordable way. This will enable business owners to safeguard against insolvent customers, expand into new and existing markets and secure better borrowing terms.

Since its inception five years ago, Nimbla has processed over 67m invoices worth £2.5b. During the pandemic, volumes of invoices tripled as economic uncertainty and supply chain concerns increased and Nimbla continued writing new business.

In a statement, Nimbla CEO Flemming Bengtsen said: “We have been growing steadily over the past few years, ramping up our technology and team to better understand businesses, the nature of B2B debt and to make faster decisions to serve our growing customer base. 2020 was a seminal year for Nimbla, at a time of global crisis, we were there for businesses enabling them to trade with peace of mind and giving them the confidence to carry on. This funding round will enable us to expand our platform, grow the team as we enable a confident and trusted trading environment for businesses across the UK and beyond”.

Bengtsen added, “We have built a powerful and robust credit risk model, automated large parts of the process, and have now launched a new API to enable others to embed seamless credit risk solutions into their platforms.”

On investing in funding round Henry Cashin, Head of EMEA at Fin VC, commented: “Nimbla is giving businesses the confidence to trade again. They have a proven credit risk model and its tech is being adopted by top-tier banks and a host of lending platforms. We believe this will scale their reach and help more businesses benefit long term.”