Meet Heritage Aquarium. With 17 years of running an import and export business, they sure do know their business.
Kunle, the Founder shared his story with Bridger of how they went through the invoice finance process and what impact it had on their business.
Heritage Exports is a major exporter of tropical fish in Africa, they import from about 4 countries across Africa and export to companies in 4 continents worldwide.
The idea came to life after Joseph, who used to work in the airport, saw that people exported tropical fish and started an internship with one of the exporters.
After a few years, he decided to start his own export business. Today, he prides himself on being a big player in a small niche industry.
Just like many other African businesses, Kunle faced long payment terms on their invoices. But what is a business to do when fish has to be imported, cared for and salaries have to be paid? Instead of refusing orders and hurting growth, they decided to search for a better way to manage their cash flow.
They explored options like going to a bank, but the bank's thresholds were too high for a small business like theirs. They also looked into factoring, but got recommended by Bridger as a "21st century solution" by a local business mentor. It fulfills all their needs by charging only a very small discount and doesn't tie them into any long term commitments. Their answer was right in front of them.
Kunle went ahead with Bridger and financed his first $5,000 invoice. They described the process as being incredibly easy where all they had to do was create an account and upload their invoice and the money was in their account in less than 2days.
They used these funds to build some products and exported them to a new customer in China.
Bridger was there for Kunle where typical banks fell short. The possibility to quickly release cash from their invoices and grow their business was one that they couldn't pass up.
Recently, they are in the process of financing their 3rd invoice and agreed that the clear process and excellent customer support they have received throughout the process will definitely keep them coming back.