Online vendors in need of cashflow for growth are the type of clients that Wayflyer is looking for. The Dublin-based lender provides short-term, revenue-based finance, through which borrowers repay loans via percentages of their daily sales.

The lender says the finance option is useful for companies that have dependable sales and growth trajectories, and who need credit faster than traditional lenders such as banks can cater for.

Wayflyer was established by Aidan Corbett and Jack Pierse and began trading in early 2020. The venture says it had loaned out €28m by November and expects lending to be in excess of €80m by March 2021.

CEO Corbett previously founded consultancy and data analytics company Conjura, while Pierse worked with Liam Casey’s San Francisco-based accelerator, Highway1.

Wayflyer offers cash advances from €4,000 to €1.6m to e-commerce companies that have annual revenue of at least €200,000. The loans incur a once-off fixed fee, which can range from 4% to 12% depending on Wayflyer’s analysis of the client’s business health. A repayment rate is also calculated and levied as a percentage of daily sales until the loan is paid off.

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For example, a €100,000 cash advance from Wayflyer with a fixed fee of 8% and a repayment rate of 5% would entail daily repayments of 5% of sales revenue until €108,000 has been paid back. According to Wayflyer, the setup would suit e-commerce companies who need cash quickly for inventory or online marketing.

Wayflyer evaluates the eligibility of client loan requests based on performance data rather than security such as a charge on property. Data such as customer base and purchasing behaviour, Facebook or Google ad spend and seasonal sales trends is analysed by Wayflyer to evaluate how safe the loan request is and how much should be advanced.

Almost three-quarters of Wayflyer’s business is in the US, though it also operates in the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. Wayflyer’s Irish clients have included Ambr Eyewear, which sells light-filtering glasses. It sourced €25,000 through Wayflyer for stock purchases and marketing, with a fixed fee of 7.5% and a repayment rate of 8%.

According to co-founder David Nugent, Wayflyer’s cash and additional advice on how to market more effectively helped Ambr triple its annual sales. “Wayflyer recommends how much we spend in each campaign to get the best return, while giving us the cash to do so,” he says.