Amsterdam fintech Duqu has raised €1.5 million in pre-seed funding from Curiosity VC and No Such Ventures, according to The SaaS News.
The startup offers short-term advances against business-to-business invoices. Its pitch is that companies should not have to wait through a customer’s payment term to gain access to revenue they have already earned.
One underwriting engine, two products
Duqu uses an artificial-intelligence underwriting system to automate credit assessment for invoice advances. The company operates its own direct financing platform and also offers the underwriting technology as a white-label product for banks, lenders and leasing companies.
The funding will support both sides of that model, The SaaS News reports. Duqu can grow its direct invoice-advance service while selling the same underlying assessment software to financial institutions that want to offer financing under their own brands.
Duqu was founded by Maas de Goede and Thijn van Helvoirt. The company has not disclosed a valuation or detailed terms for the round in the inspected reporting.
The late-payment problem
Invoice financing gives a business cash before its customer pays, typically in exchange for a fee or discount. The lender’s central task is estimating whether and when the invoice will be paid, which is where Duqu says its automated underwriting can reduce manual work.
That does not eliminate credit risk. Performance depends on the quality of the data, the reliability of the debtor and the rules used to approve an advance. The new capital gives Duqu room to expand the platform, but the inspected announcement does not provide default rates, financing volume or independent performance results.
