Booste, a Warsaw-based financing platform for ecommerce merchants, has secured €12 million in investment to finance its entry into the Irish market.
The Polish fintech, whose rivals include Irish company Wayflyer, said it plans to provide a minimum €13 million in investment to companies here, between now and the end of 2022. It also intends to hire a number of people locally.
As with Wayflyer, which recently raised $76 million (€62.7 million) in funding and secured a $100 million debt facility, Booste provides flexible financing for online-based companies with a fast approval process in return for a small percentage of future revenue.
Funding is typically used by companies that avail of it to finance marketing campaigns, and for inventory.
Revenue-based financing as a financial tool for businesses is expected to grow from $901.4 million in 2019 to $42.3 billion by 2027, according to Allied Market Research.
Booste was co-founded earlier this year by Jakub Pietraszek, who previously served as general manager for Uber Eats in Poland. The funding round for the company has been led by DialCom24, a Poznan-based online payments provider.
Potential customers wishing to avail of financing need a minimum of six months’ operating history and to sell through integrated platforms such as Shopify. Booste connects to such platforms and accesses the read-only numerical data to generate an offer.
Mr Pietraszek said the Republic was an attractive market for Booste and predicted that it would become as important to the company as its home market.
“Ireland is one of the biggest markets in Europe when it comes to ecommerce. Only UK and Norway residents spend more money online than Ireland. As well, the country’s ecommerce market also saw a seismic shift last year with it making up 15.5 per cent of all retail sales,” he said.
“Companies in this sector are facing increasing levels of competition from global companies.
"Having the financing to fund marketing activities like Google and Facebook ads, or inventory spend so they can keep up with consumer demand, can make all the difference to winning a key customer sale. We're delighted to have the opportunity to support these businesses in Ireland," Mr Pietraszek added.
