Tag Archives: Trade Finance

Finance and Banking, Finance News, International News, News, North of England

WeDo Business Services makes acquires significant stake in Australian finance firm

A north west business services group has gained a foothold in the Australian market by making a strategic seven-figure investment in a Brisbane-based invoice and trade finance company.

WeDo Business Services, which is headquartered in Oldham, has taken a significant stake in Invoice Finance Group (IFG).

IFG had been seeking an investment partner to help take it to the next level by adding funding capability and new business finance products. At the same time, WeDo was looking to establish itself Down Under.

WeDo directors Mark Lindsay and Chris Robinson engaged Wayne Smith, a former senior executive at Sydney-based business finance company ScotPac, to help with this phase of their growth plan.

Wayne was able to bring both parties together and helped to structure the deal. He has become chairman of IFG following the investment, and will work with its founders and directors Paul and Angela Tonges on its expansion strategy.

Mark, group chief executive of WeDo, said: “Our invoice finance business has been built on a simple model of delivering solutions in a transparent and value-added way, working with clients to ensure they get more than they expect.

“It was refreshing to see that IFG shares a similar approach which is very client-centric.

“The independent finance market in Australia is not as competitive as it is in the UK, and therefore we feel there is scope for IFG to expand significantly and develop additional service lines, much like our UK business has done in recent years. We are extremely excited by the opportunities and growth potential for IFG.”

WeDo provides a range of services to small and medium-sized companies. In addition to invoice and trade finance and start-up funding, it provides HR, back office, IT, digital and payroll support, with a focus on the recruitment sector.

Mark and Chris founded the business in 2019 with just four staff and the company has grown rapidly through organic expansion and acquisitions. The group now employs almost 100 people across its network of offices, including sites in Colchester, Swindon, Sheffield and MediaCityUK in Salford.

IFG is a boutique business which husband and wife team Paul and Angela set up in 2011. It specialises in providing invoice finance to businesses across Australia.

Paul said: “As the founders, we are very excited about the next chapter of IFG’s growth strategy. We’re delighted to share a common alignment in our vision and values with our new investors, by continuing to exceed our customers’ expectations.

“This strategic investment will allow IFG to better service our existing clients and attract new customers by enabling us to offer a broader range of finance products and a larger deal size. With so many Australian small businesses desperate to fund growth, IFG will be able to assist many more SMEs.”

News, North of England

Fast-growing WeDo Business Services moves to new headquarters

A fast-expanding business services group with revenues soaring towards £10m has moved to new headquarters to accommodate its growing team.

WeDo Business Services has relocated to Meadowbank House, on the Meadowbank Business Park in Chadderton, Oldham.

The group previously had its head office at the nearby Hollinwood Business Centre.

WeDo provides a range of services to small and medium-sized companies, including invoice and trade finance, start-up funding and HR, back office, IT, digital and payroll support, with a focus on the recruitment sector.

The business was founded by Mark Lindsay and Chris Robinson in 2019 as WeDo Finance with just four staff and has grown rapidly through organic expansion and acquisition.

Turnover for the year to July 31 is forecast to be £9.5m, an increase of nearly 60 per cent.

The group has offices in Colchester, Sheffield and Swindon as well as at MediaCityUK in Salford and at Chadderton, and employs 95 staff in total.

Its new HQ gives the group scope to accommodate more recruits as well as staff visiting from its other offices.

Group chief executive Mark Lindsay said: “The move to Meadowbank House is transformational for the business. We had been at Hollinwood since our creation in 2019 but our expansion meant we required more space for our head office team.

“Many of them live in and around Greater Manchester, so it was important that our new base was close to the Metrolink and the motorway network, with plenty of available free parking for staff and visitors. Most staff have a short commute, and some can even walk to our new offices, which is great.

“We are easily accessible and can be in the city centre quickly if necessary, so it’s an excellent location for us.

“The new office also gives us scope for further growth as we look to continue our organic expansion and seek acquisitions to bolt on new services.”

WeDo’s new office features breakout areas with a pool room and a PlayStation.

Mark said: “We encourage staff to get away from their desks regularly and create a social environment that supports creativity, positivity and productivity as well as positive wellbeing.”

He said the pandemic and its lockdowns had presented growth opportunities for the group, as clients sought additional areas of support such as HR advice, business forecasting, business advice and investment.

“We’ve developed rapidly by becoming a true business service partner to our clients, helping new and existing businesses to significantly improve their cash flow, their operations and their earnings potential,” he added.

“Our strategy is to continue to expand the range of services we are able to offer and to further strengthen our relationships with existing clients as well as helping us to attract new ones across the country.”

News

Bolero announces flagship client for Galileo TPaaS for Banks; the industry’s first white-labelled trade finance portal-as-a-service solution

Bolero International, the leading cloud-based trade finance digitization experts, announce the signing of UBS as its first major customer for Galileo TPaaS, its new white-labelled trade finance portal-as-a-service solution for banks.

The innovative solution helps financial institutions provide their corporate clients with unrivalled functionality and a transformed digital experience. For the very first time, banks can achieve an accelerated time to market and an overall lower cost of deployment as compared to traditional trade finance digitisation options.

Galileo TPaaS allows corporates to conduct traditional trade and open account transactions and leverages the structured communication processes and electronic trade documents, making Bolero a leader in trade finance digitization. Over time, Bolero will work with like-minded fintechs to expand the functionality and services available to Galileo users.

The white-labelled solution is built on Bolero’s secure SaaS platform Galileo and is available on-demand as a fully managed service on the cloud.

“Galileo TPaaS fits well into our vision of an eventually end-to-end digital trade business. The collaboration with Bolero brings us one, significant step closer. The Galileo TPaaS core allows us to offer a great user experience to our customers,” said Didier Furrer, Product Manager Trade & Export Finance at UBS.

Andrew Raymond, CEO at Bolero International added: “We are very pleased having gained UBS as a first flagship client. This allows us to deliver a unique and compelling offering to corporates through a branded portal. It helps realise our vision for corporates to embrace digitization of trade finance and will drive adoption in other areas of our business. The great teamwork and sharing of ideas have accelerated our plans in this space, and we are excited to announce further client acquisitions in due time.”

Bolero’s Chief Product Officer, Anchal Tiwari also added: “The signing of a major European bank leads Bolero to the next chapter of its growth and success. Galileo TPaaS will be fully integrated into their back-end systems which will allow end-to-end digitization of trade transactions requests by corporate clients. With Galileo TPaaS, the bank will be able to tap into Bolero’s connected digital ecosystem and offer out of the box multi-bank trade finance services and ready carrier connectivity to their clients.”

About Bolero International 

Established in 1998 by SWIFT and the global logistics and insurance industry, Bolero International has built a formidable reputation and market leadership position in driving the digitisation of global trade. Bolero delivers secure, end-to-end, cloud-based services across the entire global supply chain. By digitising trade processes and transactions.