Tapping into an ecosystem of technology partners and startups, the EY team worked to develop a solution which would help raise finance against already-issued – but as-yet unpaid – invoices. This would enable better management of an SME’s cashflow despite the common challenge of late payment and the complexity of getting a working capital loan from banks.
To confirm that the platform worked, the EY team conducted a three-month trial with one of the largest banks in Central Europe. According to Jakub Hytka, Senior Manager, Ernst & Young, s.r.o, in building a minimum viable product that was not fully automated, it was possible to test the platform very rapidly after a couple of months of development with real clients to assess the market potential. This avoided the risk of large, early-stage investment.
Quick and seamless access to capital
The success of the proof-of-concept stage provided the team confidence to build the full-scale app. The result was Cashbot – an AI-enabled app which offers the financing of invoices for SMEs. It also provides the potential for third-party insurance against the SME customer's inability or unwillingness to pay the invoice.