Tuesday 22 January 2019

Barclays and Santander invest in ...

What do they invest in? I bet you're dying to know, dear reader(s). 'I should imagine Barclays and Santander invest in all kinds of stuff, boss.' Yes, yes ... but it's the latest news I'm talking about, Voice. 'Oh.' Yes. Look - !!!

21st January 2019, London; Fintech business lender MarketInvoice today announced it has raised £26m in new equity funding. This Series-B funding round was led by Barclays and fintech fund Santander InnoVentures with significant participation from European venture fund Northzone, an existing investor in the company. Technology credit fund Viola Credit, who also participated in the equity round, will provide a debt facility of up to £30m to help scale the MarketInvoice business loans solution, that sits alongside their core invoice finance solutions.

Okay, okay. Bilal says I can interview the CEO and co-founder of MarketInvoice, Anil Stocker - if I want to, like. 'Do you want to, boss?' No. 'Oh. Oh dear.' What?! I'm a busy man, man. I've got another conceptual to write this afternoon, No. 678. 'Okay.' I wouldn't even know what to ask him. 'Okay.' I'm not even interested in finance. 'Yeah, right. FFS!' All I really want to do is play my guitar, son. But more of that later. Let's finish this!

The funding will enable MarketInvoice to deepen strategic partnerships in the UK, grow the team and increase awareness of its business finance solutions. In addition, the company is planning to launch cross-border fintech-bank partnerships to support more businesses with access to their lending solutions.

Okay, okay. I, uh ... ah, look! Anil Stocker! I don't need to interview him, after all.

Anil Stocker, Co-founder & CEO of MarketInvoice, comments: "This investment is perfectly timed for the company. The quality of investors we are bringing in through this funding round is a real testament to the whole team at MarketInvoice and the value we are building."

But is he excited? That's the question!

"We're excited to develop our finance solutions further and become the trusted funding partner for ambitious entrepreneurs. By collaborating with bank partners, we will be reaching many thousands of companies here in the UK and abroad to provide them with their business finance needs. We aim to invest in technology, data and strategic partnerships, to take MarketInvoice to the next level."

Well, well ... 'They're all excited, boss! The whole MarketInvoice team!' Yeah. Amazing! Anyway ... ENDS! 'Er ... what about the other guys?' Eh? What other guys? 'Mikey! We've got Manuel at Santander InnoVentures. We've got Ian at Barclays Business Bank. We've got Ido at Viola Credit. Let them have their say!' Christ! All right. We'll do one of them. Only one. Ian. Come on, mate!

Ian Rand, CEO of Barclays Business Bank, says: "Collaborating with fintech companies like MarketInvoice is an integral part of Barclays' strategy for accelerating growth. This investment demonstrates our commitment to the partnership we announced last summer which offers hundreds of thousands of our SME clients access to even more innovative forms of finance, boosting cash flow and competition in the market."

Fair enough. ENDS!!!

...

Anything else? Music? My music? Tomorrow might be my last chance to record my demo before the strings go off. [So maybe no blogging.] Yeah, yeah, I had the last set of strings on for over six hundred hours, but I would say they're only good for recording up to the fifty-hour mark. Maybe sixty, I don't know. Some fussy people change their Elixirs after thirty hours, but those cats must be made of money. I've still got a spare set. I'll have to order some more. / Oh, I've got to write two lyrics soon. That will give me sixteen songs. I'm thinking now about a twelve-track album of roughly fifty-three minutes. One of those new songs should become my fifth "world-beater" - as I like to call them. Having five songs like that on one album would be mental, man. / Listen! A debut album is a golden opportunity to record an all-time classic album because if you're smart you've got years to prepare. You dig? Think of The Stone Roses. It's the greatest album so far, I reckon. [I'm playing it now.] But I can beat it ... with the right musicians and producer supporting me, of course. Everyone needs help in this life!

Okay. Laters!

No, no, no. No! Hang on a minute! The Stone Roses is a strange one though. Sure, it has loads of great songs, but none of them are mainstream classics like Wonderwall or Hey Jude or ... whatever. Maybe it's the way the songs all sound together. Who knows? / The truth is, there are five all-time great albums ... The Stone Roses, Revolver, OK Computer, Sgt. Pepper, and Pet Sounds. Not one of them can be considered the Citizen Kane of albums. They're just not dominant enough. Do you know what I mean? / Actually, I need to watch Citizen Kane again. That film has probably become more important since the election of Donald Trump. Orson Welles was one bad mutha. Imagine making a film like that when you're only twenty-five! His first film!

All right. Laters, kook(s)!