iwoca stands for “Instant WOrking CApital” for online-market retailers, driven by a vision to support success. iwoca went live in February 2012 and if you’re interested in short term finance from them you can sign up today to get pre-approved so that you can access funds when you need them.
There are currently 180,000 registered eBay businesses in the UK but only 159 of those make more than £1 million a year? That’s less than one in a thousand. By providing instant working capital to this successful and relatively un-catered for group of entrepreneurs, iwoca believe in their growth potential and are committed to supporting their success.
iwoca’s founders, Christoph and James both worked in banking for many years and recognised the need for a faster and more innovative way of providing working capital to successful online sellers. They felt that with today’s available technology and sources of data it should no longer be the privilege of larger companies to gain instant access to capital to take advantage of opportunities and ultimately grow their businesses.
iwoca in action
Any online-market retailer knows that seizing the opportunities that come their way is a major component to success or failure in this highly competitive and fast paced environment. Traditional financial institutions don’t offer instant loans with flexible terms and, more importantly, have a limited understanding of the digital selling market. That’s why Sam Pollard from Literascripta and Darren Lowery from Disco World Ltd were some of the first customers of iwoca.
Sam Pollard’s story
Sam has been running his successful eBay business () for many years now. Literascripta buys and sells books, specialising in the rare and unusual. Sam came to iwoca for an injection of working capital to allow him to make the most of two book auctions that he planned to attend.
Sam says, “iwoca offered me some much needed working capital on a short-term basis so that I could make the most of the book auctions I was planning on attending. This type of funding was not available to me from other sources, plus traditional lenders don’t understand my business model so it’s great that I can now make the most of all opportunities to grow my business”
Darren Lowery’s story
Similarly to Sam, Darren has been running since 1999. Disco World is a national supplier of disco equipment, DJ equipment, disco lighting and disco lights to professional DJs, entertainers and venues. Following recent investment in his technological infrastructure, Darren wishes to grow the business by up to 25% in the next 12 months however in order to achieve this he required an injection of cash to add to his product range.
“I was intrigued by iwoca following an article on Tamebay last year, so I expressed an interest. They recently contacted me to say they were live and invited me to sign up, which I did. The process of signing up and applying for a loan with iwoca was really easy with the majority of it being completed online. My application was approved following some final checks and the money was in my bank account that same day” said Darren. “What’s also great is that if I want I can repay iwoca before the end of the term with no penalty charges.”
The iWoCa difference
iwoca supports successful online-market retailers enabling them to seize juicy opportunities that they would otherwise miss due to lack of funds. In a nutshell, iwoca provides:
- Instant unsecured working capital for up to 90 days
- Fully flexibility – online sellers only pay for the amount and time they need it for
- Full transparency – simple structure, no hidden fees
A representative example
Let’s say you are short of £3,000 to buy inventory that is offered to you at 75% off and on which you expect to make 100% profit margin.
Solution: 90 day unsecured business loan of £3,000
Total amount repayable: £3,300 in monthly instalments of £1,150, £1,100 and £1,050
Total interest: £300 (5% per month on outstanding balance)
Early repayment: The earlier you repay, the less interest we will charge. There are no penalty fees for paying earlier than the term
Your expected profit: £2,700
The service went live in February 2012 and has shown impressive results in its first few weeks – issuing its first loan on the day of launch!
You can find more information and apply for loans on the iwoca website and follow them on Twitter and Facebook.
