GoCardless reshapes funding access for UK small businesses

GoCardless by the numbers

Challenge

Small and medium enterprises based in the UK have a range of capital finance needs, from growing their business to covering cash flow gaps caused by late payments. A staggering 52% of them experience late payments—so it’s unsurprising that 1 in 6 are looking for financing. 

The small businesses that GoCardless serves often face significant challenges in accessing the working capital they need to keep their businesses humming—whether that’s paying their employees, acquiring new equipment, or opening up a new location. In particular, micro-businesses and minority-owned businesses often lack the credit history or scores required by traditional lenders. GoCardless sought an embedded capital product that would enable their customers to access capital without personal guarantees or credit checks, while offering a seamless user experience.

Solution

GoCardless selected Pipe for its impressive merchant pre-approval rates and its ability to offer capital without personal guarantees. Pipe stood out not only for its fast, easy-to-access financing, but also for the streamlined user experience, which enabled higher conversion rates. After Pipe was selected, GoCardless was able to launch a pilot program with their Pipe-hosted solution in under six weeks. This allowed small and medium business owners to apply for capital from the same platform they were already accustomed to for collecting their payments.

“When assessing a partner integration, we look for a flexible, easily customizable solution, as well as strong support from the team to ensure a seamless process. Pipe checked all the boxes—the code was easy to implement, with clear documentation,” said Will Slater, Director of Growth at GoCardless. “We only needed to embed a few snippets of code, and we were up and running with a capital product. Their expert team supported us every step of the way.”

Given the success of the pilot from the Pipe-hosted experience, GoCardless is transitioning to the embedded UI for a more seamless customer experience.

Results

GoCardless intends to embed Pipe’s capital solutions directly into its own platform, providing seamless capital access for its UK customer base.

Early results exceeded expectations with almost £7m in capital being advanced to GoCardless customers in just three months. Pipe saw attach rates twice as high as benchmark figures. Customers loved how clear and transparent the offering was and how payment aligns with the ebbs and flows of their business. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with an outstanding NPS score of 88. As a result of the strength of the current partnership, GoCardless plans to expand the Pipe offering to other markets.

Partner with Pipe

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