Financial news

Amsterdam-based Mollie, a payment service provider, announced on Monday that it has launched Mollie Capital to provide UK merchants with fast and flexible financing. 

The announcement comes three months after obtaining a payment institution licence from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority in November 2023, after initially launching in the UK in early 2021 under the Temporary Permissions Regime for EU-based financial services firms.

In Europe, the Dutch company launched Mollie Capital in September 2022 to provide SMEs with easy cash advances.

With this launch, UK retailers can bypass traditional lenders and access up to £250,000 to help drive growth. 

Why Mollie Capital in the UK?

In the UK, SME merchants often face challenges when seeking funding from traditional lenders. 

They are required to provide extensive financial documentation, endure lengthy application procedures, and wait for weeks to receive a decision and the subsequent funds.

Unlike these lenders, once a merchant has been processing payments with Mollie for 90 days, they are immediately eligible to apply for funding. 

The application process takes as little as five minutes, and once a decision is made the funds are transferred within 24 hours. 

As a result, it enables merchants to take rapid action to changes in business circumstances and capitalise on growth opportunities. 

Mollie Capital offers a fixed one-time fee and a repayment plan based on a percentage of the merchant’s daily sales. 

To date, Mollie Capital, in partnership with YouLend, has provided loans exceeding €50M to over 5,000 SMEs in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. 

Funding applications are highest during peak shopping periods, such as Black Friday and the festive period, says the company. It encompasses startups, businesses in need of smaller loan amounts, and those who favor revenue-based financing options.

“Mollie Capital is our first financial service to launch in the UK – the first of many designed to eliminate financial bureaucracy for SMEs,” says Mia Hunter, Managing Director of Mollie UK. 

“For too long, small and mid-size UK merchants have been neglected by incumbent payment services providers, lenders, and banks. They just don’t invest in the simplicity and flexibility SMEs need to manage their finances. Mollie Capital fills a critical gap in the UK market. In Europe, we have customers repeatedly using, and paying back, this new source of funding to drive impressive levels of sustainable growth.” 

Mollie: Financial services providers

Founded in 2004 by Adrian Mol, Mollie is a payments platform that offers an “easy-to-implement” process for integrating payments into a site or app.

The platform aims to simplify online payments for merchants by taking away the complexity of payment methods and offering a “simple yet powerful” API.

Currently, the Amsterdam-based firm processes payments for more than 200,000 clients with local payment methods such as Mastercard, VISA, Amex, PayPal, iDEAL, and more.

The Dutch fintech firm has an international team of more than 700 employees from offices across Europe, including Amsterdam, Lisbon, London, Munich, and Paris.