Codat awarded further BCR funding to open up SME sales data to lenders and payment providers
Codat, the universal API for small business data, has been awarded £5m by BCR (Banking Competition Remedies).
The funding will be used to open up small business sales data to enhance decisions made by lenders and providers, and to offer automated payment reconciliation into small businesses’ accounting platforms.
Codat’s API connects the tools and services that small businesses need for their operations, like accounting software and bank accounts, and handles the heavy lifting of integrations – ultimately leaving providers free to focus on improving their offerings for small businesses.
Since receiving its first BCR award in 2019, Codat’s connectivity has been embedded in POS, eCommerce, business management tools, banking, lending, insurance, credit insurance, and a multitude of other small business software products to deliver better services to tens of thousands of SMEs. The company is currently tracking at or ahead of its public commitments to its Pool D and Pool E awards. These included developing a no-code portal to enable providers to launch integrated products without a line of code as well as building new accounting software integrations so that new products can reach more SMEs.
With this award, Codat plans to build, test, and release a new Insights product to increase competition in the lending market by opening up access to sales data. It will enable SMEs to leverage real-time transaction data from POS and eCommerce systems to access a range of new working capital solutions. This product will mean UK lenders can easily view and interpret consented financial data from the sales tools used by more than 50% of UK SMEs without the need for any software development.
The funding will also support the launch of a new Sync API. This will provide automatic synchronisation and reconciliation of transaction data from the payment service providers used by SMEs into their accounting platforms. The new tool will enable at least 50,000 businesses to eliminate manual bookkeeping, reduce manual errors, streamline tax preparations, and build a high-quality financial data history within their accounting system.
Pete Lord, CEO at Codat said: “For some of the smallest, newest businesses, emerging in the aftermath of the Covid crisis, sales data is both their most powerful asset to access finance and their biggest cause of bookkeeping headaches. The success of these businesses is vital to the global economic recovery.”
“With this further funding, BCR recognises our intention to democratise sales data and ultimately make life easier for these businesses.”
The award is part of the latest round of Pool F funding declared by BCR, which was established to implement the Alternative Remedies Package of measures agreed between the UK government and the European Commission following the state aid granted to Royal Bank of Scotland.
The £5m grant builds on the previous rounds of £5m and £2.5m Codat received from BCR in 2019 and 2020.
Lord added: “BCR’s backing has already helped us to go faster – and many thousands of small businesses have benefited from better products and services. We’re proud to be recognised once again alongside other highly innovative British fintech firms.”