Fintech Skippr scores $16m funding from fintech heavy hitters

Small business financing start-up Skippr has shrugged off concerns that the indefinitely delayed IPO of its venture-backed peer Prospa could put off investors in the sector, by attracting some of the local fintech scene’s biggest hitters to a $16 million debt and equity financing round.

Pepper group co-founder and former chief executive Patrick Tuttle and SocietyOne and Douugh co-founder Andy Taylor have both invested in the round, which is comprised of $1 million in equity from high net worth investors, and $15 million in debt.

Skippr was founded two-and-a-half years ago by former NAB senior corporate agribusiness senior associate and MarketInvoice team lead Alistair Lamond alongside former fund manager Patrick Crivelli, and, like Prospa, it taps into the gap for small business financing.

It’s main revenue driver is an invoice financing operation, which provides small businesses with loans based on their assets, and it also provides a small business cashflow forecasting tool to track, manage and predict finances in real time.

The Prospa float was postponed at the last minute for an undetermined period in June, following questions about whether its loan contracts had breached new laws. Mr Crivelli said the IPO failure was a case of “unfortunate timing”, which didn’t reflect on the strong business Prospa has built.

“We operate in a slightly different part of the market, our facility sizes are a bit bigger and our strategy is different,” he told The Australian Financial Review.

“We compete with them on some deals, but we’re not necessarily head-to-head.”

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Source: Fintech Skippr scores $16m funding from fintech heavy hitters | afr.com