PARIS – 19 SEPTEMBER 2016 – URICA, a market leading fintech network, and Euler Hermes, the worldwide leader in trade-credit insurance, have signed a partnership agreement offering French companies a new online financing solution.
Based on the sale of invoices through a secure platform, URICA empowers businesses to pay and be paid on the terms they want, releasing cash into the supply chain with zero debt and zero risk. Designed from the ground up and harnessing the latest digital technology, the solution has reimagined how business payments should work to address late payment problems within SME supply chains.
Supply chain finance is used by many large corporates to secure their supply chains, but the benefits normally only flow to tier one strategic suppliers. The Euler Hermes URICA solution is a pioneering solution that brings the benefits of supply chain funding to even the smallest business in a supply chain.
A growing number of companies are seeking new solutions to complement and diversify traditional funding sources. Optimizing the need for working capital and cash preservation are strategic business issues, and mobilizing credit is increasingly used to obtain short-term financing. The Euler Hermes- URICA partnership enables businesses to regain cashflow control, and trade with less risk and debt in France and abroad.
The partnership enables URICA to expand its French market offering, while Euler Hermes France will analyze the quality of invoices to be financed, recover unpaid debts and insure against the risk of default. Euler Hermes will also share its economic trends knowledge with URICA. Between 2007 and 2016, the number of business failures increased by almost 25% in France. Despite a potential trend reversal underway, 60,000 insolvencies are still anticipated in 2016 in France and the risk of default is rising in emerging countries (China +20%, Brazil +22%).
Eric Lenoir, CEO of Euler Hermes France, said: “This partnership represents a double milestone for our digital strategy development and assistance to businesses. It is the first contract produced by our new entity - EH Digital Agency – in which companies like URICA offer particularly innovative solutions through a new application programming interface (API). This includes single invoice cover, with real-time credit decisions and pricing adjusting in real time based on the quality of the debt. Advanced technology combined with our credit risk experience allows fintech companies to market additional and secure financing to their customers.”
“APIs are at the heart of the digital transformation embraced by Euler Hermes,” added Louis Carbonnier, head of the Euler Hermes Digital Agency. “They are used to provide unprecedented digital solutions to meet challenges faced by our customers and offer a new field of innovation to reinvent our business.”
Lindsay Whitelaw, URICA’s chairman, said: “This is a breakthrough moment in SME funding that was only achievable through our close collaboration with Euler Hermes Digital Agency. It will allow URICA users to have an on-line instantaneous offer of payment for their global trade, invoice-by-invoice, when they want it, with one simple responsive price, and without onerous security, catches or comebacks.”