Previse gets suppliers paid, instantly.
Small companies are the backbone of the global economy. They generate the majority of employment and GDP as well as being an engine of growth and innovation across the world. However, one of the biggest challenges that they consistently face is simply getting paid quickly by their large corporate clients.
Lengthy payment terms cause severe harm to small businesses’ cash flow and force them towards expensive financing, pushing up costs for buyers. Previse offers a better way to do business to business transactions.
Previse works directly with large buyers to allow them to offer suppliers the option of being paid as soon as their invoice is received. Its smart tech analyses the buyer’s invoice data to predict the very few invoices that are unlikely to get paid, so that the rest can be paid instantly.
This has the potential to unlock over $650 billion worldwide every year which is trapped in wasteful payment processes.
Previse charges a fee of just 1 per cent per month to suppliers which opt for instant payment, which is shared between the buyer, the funder and Previse.
Previse is a win win for buyers and suppliers.
Small suppliers wait less, stress less and pay less. Buyers, on the other hand, earn new profits from their invoice data while setting a new standard for supplier payments.
Previse’s programme is designed to be as frictionless as possible. It allows buyers to maintain their existing payment terms while paying suppliers instantly, avoiding an impact on the balance sheet. The data analytics can help foster a more efficient back office without the need for new technology or a change to a buyer’s existing payment processes.
Previse opened an office in Glasgow in October 2017 in recognition of its position as a thriving centre of UK fintech and a global financial centre. Glasgow’s combination of world class academic institutions, banks’ technology hubs and innovative fintechs make it an ideal home for a company like Previse.
In January 2018, it secured £800,000 from Scottish Enterprise to expand its presence in Glasgow, creating 37 new data science jobs. Since arriving in Scotland, Previse have further strengthened relationships with the Scottish business community as well as Scottish academia through its work with The Data Lab and partnership with the University of Strathclyde.
Through its partnership with The Data Lab, Previse is tapping into some of Scotland’s top data science academics for projects to further develop its data analytics technology.
The Previse team have come together with one mission: to ensure that every supplier in the world can be paid instantly and at the fairest rate.
In today’s business to business (B2B) world, most businesses are paid using payment terms. That means, once an invoice is approved, it takes another 30-90 days for the supplier to receive their money. The impact of this process on both buyers and sellers is hugely negative.
Suppliers often have to take out expensive credit to cover their cash flow while they wait to get paid. Some suppliers even go bankrupt while waiting for outstanding invoice payments.
Buyers, on the other hand, end up paying more as the cost of this expensive credit must be wrapped up into the purchasing price that sellers charge. At the same time, large buyers are also perceived to be taking advantage of their suppliers and face a growing public and political backlash as a result.
Everyone ends up paying more. It is extremely wasteful and damaging to businesses, especially small suppliers. In fact, Previse estimates that solving the problem would unlock $300 billion extra value globally.
This is the challenge the Previse team have set themselves.
The Previse solution was initially conceived by David Brown, who has worked in trade finance and B2B payments for his entire career. David thought that, by using emerging machine learning technologies, he might be able to build a system which could predict that an invoice would get approved and paid, then pay invoices instantly based on that prediction. The technology would allow businesses a shortcut through the lengthy invoice approvals process and allow suppliers to be paid straight away.
With the idea for Previse formed, the founding team came together, world leaders in the areas of expertise needed to build this solution. The founding team combines world leaders in data science, to build the prediction algorithms, technology, to build the smart technology to deliver Previse’s InstantPay and building fintech businesses.
These five founding members are driven by the shared vision of finally brining a sustainable solution to B2B commerce which will allow businesses to be paid instantly in a way which creates wins for everyone in the payments chain.
Since its founding in 2016, Previse has undergone extremely rapid growth in both its team and client base.
The large businesses and public sector companies which Previse sells to have some of the longest purchasing cycles of any organisation. Despite this, the Previse team have managed to create such interest among these companies that many have fast tracked their processes to try to implement Previse’s InstantPay as soon as possible. Just a year after beginning to accept clients, the company had secured contracts with seven large organisations in the UK with dozens more expressing strong interest.
Paul Christensen – CEO
Philipp Schoenbucher – Chief Data Scientist
Giulio Rossi – Head of Data Analytics
