Barclays signs tech partnership with invoice insurance firm Nimbla

UK multinational bank Barclays has announced a new partnership with invoice insurance start-up Nimbla.

Nimbla will be offered to one million Barlcays SME customers

Nimbla offers users the opportunity to insure invoices, with it slowest price point set at £6 per item, or £50,000 per book. The firm aims to disrupt an industry in which an insurance sale can take “days or weeks”.

As part of the partnership, Barclays’ relationship managers will be introducing the product to their small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) clients in the North East, Cumbria, South East London and Kent, before a full roll-out later in the year.

As a result, Nimbla could be put in front of a potential one million SME clients.

“We are excited to be working with Barclays to introduce Nimbla to their customers,” says Flemming Bengsten, founder and CEO of Nimbla.

“All too often it is SMEs that feel the pain when other businesses fold. They are least equipped to absorb the losses and don’t have access to the tools that larger corporates do.

“Nimbla however, is as much about the opportunity as the risk. We are focused on helping SMEs grow as well as protecting their business.”

Related: UK SMEs chasing £50bn in late payments

Working with industry disruptors is “key” to the Barclays strategy going forward, according to Ian Rand, CEO of Barclays Business Banking.

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“Traditionally, trade credit insurance requires businesses to insure their entire book, but this can be very complex, expensive and inflexible, therefore making it unsuitable for SMEs.”

“Our UK-wide network of relationship managers will be introducing our clients to Nimbla over the next few months, and we look forward to seeing how the pilot progresses.”

Founded in 2016, Nimbla was part of the second cohort of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)’s regulatory sandbox programme.

It has only disclosed two funding rounds, both occurring in 2018 and worth a (disclosed) $120,000. The firm is underwritten by Great Lakes Insurance.