Rob Straathof (CEO, Liberis) sits down with Lloyd to talk about how his company offers pre-approved revenue-based SME financing.

After entering the industry as an investment banker, Rob developed his expertise in small-business lending at such companies as Wonga, Everline (UK’s first digital SME lender) and Newable BusinessFinance (responsible finance provider backed by the British Business Bank). In 2015, he joined Liberis, which helps SMEs get working capital without fixed repayments, through partnerships with the likes of Worldpay, Sagepay, or Xero. To date, Liberis has provided over $800 million of funding in more than 40,000 transactions across 7 countries.

In this episode, Lloyd and Rob discuss the ways Liberis has already helped companies weather pandemic-related crises before outlining the benefits of revenue-based financing with repayments linked to the cashflow, and embedded finance through establishing fintech partnerships. Later they delve into Rob’s entrepreneurial experience, highlighting the value of investing in people and sharing Rob’s story of being the youngest pilot in Netherlands and his dream of becoming an astronaut!

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Episode Highlights:

2:48: How SMEs are switching from in-store to e-commerce

7:02: What is embedded finance and how flexible repayments work?

10:46: The neural network behind the credit decision science

14:45: Throwback to Rob’s being one of the first guests of the Mana’s podcast

16:42: The dream of becoming an astronaut and Rob’s journey to an entrepreneur

24:00: SME lending through partnerships being the embedded finance market worth $3.6Tr

29:20: The power of the team and investing in people

30:30: Looking forward

36:29: Rob’s mana