One of the most significant knock on effects of the financial crisis is that credit remains scarce for SME’s throughout Ireland, leaving a major gap in funding that needs to be filled. Businesses seeking traditional forms of finance are faced with increased decision making, greater restrictions and higher rates, as banks apply stricter lending standards. One of Ireland’s most exciting finance companies is emerging as the leading global alternative to traditional forms of finance providing companies with a badly needed alternative option.
Aztec Money, by allowing suppliers to sell their invoices outright in a competitive auction market place, on terms the supplier chooses, is set to transform the availability of trade and export funding for companies in Ireland. Aztec connects (non-Bank) Investors such as Asset Managers to suppliers thus replacing bank lending and removing the need for credit scoring, lending limits, or personal guarantees as suppliers sell invoices rather than borrowing against them.
Aztec Money is the easiest, fastest and most secure way to access financing for any company without using Invoice Discounting, loans or Letter-of- Credit. Suppliers simply register and start selling invoices on terms they choose and watch bidders compete to buy their invoices. Aztec Money charges a fee for successfully completed transactions with no hidden charges. Aztec operate on a non-recourse basis supporting businesses in any sector worldwide or internally in Ireland, selling invoices for Goods OR Services. The platform is proving particularly popular with Irish exporters. One of the key avenues in returning the Irish economy to some level of stability is through the growth of exports but there remains a long road to travel before this translates into significant and badly needed job creation. Currently non-exporters account for 82% of employment with SME’s very much aligned to the domestic economy. What is required is for more Irish SME’s to build an export capability to increase growth and drive the creation of new jobs leading to a steady economic recovery. One of the major obstacles for companies in deciding to approach new markets is access to finance. A recent IEA study concluded that 23.7% of companies believed this was the major stumbling block when considering branching out into markets outside of Ireland. In addition 70% of companies claimed that they had experienced difficulties in obtaining trade finance from their banks in the past year. On the up side there are investors across the globe eager to help finance this export growth. These investors have an exceptional amount of capital to invest but the most significant restrictive factor, until Aztec, was a single market place in which they could compete to buy invoices directly from suppliers. Investors on the Aztec platform focus on the company that owes the supplier payment via the invoice rather than the credit quality of the supplier.
Companies like Aztec Money aim to re-shape the architecture of global finance and help vital companies and industries develop sustainable export growth.Aztec Money’s presence in markets as disparate as Ireland and Thailand underscore the global nature of the problem facing SME’s and Exporters at a critical point in the economic cycle. Supporting and developing alternatives to the shrinking traditional forms of credit from Banks will be critical to economic development. Thomas Edison remarked, “There’s a way to do it better— find it”, Aztec Money appears to have achieved exactly that.