Tradeplus24 taps BDO Corporate Finance for growth equity hunt

Tradeplus24 has hired corporate finance consultants from BDO to help the company secure $5 million in growth funding. 

Founded in 2016 in Switzerland, Tradeplus24 is a lender to small- and mid-sized businesses. The company provides credit lines between $500,000 and $10 million to businesses overlooked by the big banks and overcharged by factoring providers.

The company’s main edge lies in how it structures its deals. While major lenders typically require property as collateral, the Swiss fintech uses the accounts receivables as security, making its offering more accessible for small- and mid-sized businesses.

Since launching, Tradeplus24 has grown into the largest SME non-bank lender in Switzerland, financing more than $500 million of receivables. Following success in its home market, Tradeplus24 received a CHF 120 million backing – at the time a record for a Swiss startup – from respected investors such as Credit Suisse, SIXFintech Ventures and Berliner Volksbank Ventures, and using the capital injection the 20-strong company last year expanded its footprint with launches in Austria and Australia.

“We’ve expanded to Australia to address a clear gap in the ability for SME’s to obtain finance to grow their business,” explained the CEO of Tradeplus24 Ben James, formerly a banker at GE Capital, Cembra Money Bank and Banco Santander banker.

In Australia, Tradeplus24 is led by Adam Lane and Kelvin Rossely. Lane, a former executive at National Australia Bank, said that the fintech has helped dozens of customers domestically, and that it has a pipeline of customers valued in the tens of millions of dollars range.

The company is seeing high demand because it meets the needs of an underserviced part of Australia’s financing market. Large lender struggle to structure cashflow finance under $5 million without property security, while other alternative lenders typically cap loan sizes at $250,000.

To fuel its local growth, Tradeplus24 Australia is now on the hunt for fresh equity. The firm has engaged consultants from BDO Corporate Finance to lead the search and capital raising process, which is expected to close at the end of this month. "We expect institutional investors of a similar calibre to join Tradeplus24 as both debt and equity investors,” concluded Lane.

Last month, Australian medical technology company RxMx hired KPMG to support a similar mandate.