Embedded Invoice Financing

Company: AREX· Role: UX Lead · Date: 2022

AREX, was a competitive data-driven Fintech start-up aiming to bridge capital market liquidity and SME cashflow needs.

Scope and Business Value

Born in 2014 after seeing a massive opportunity for technology to disrupt the SME financing market, AREX was a competitive data-driven fintech company aiming to bridge capital market liquidity and SME cashflow needs.

Their first product was an automated receivables exchange platform where SME invoices were converted into a tradable asset class called Exchange Traded Receivables (ETRs).

ETRs were sold on an open market where a single ETR can be purchased by one or multiple investors using automated trading bots. Most of the ETRs are filled within seconds of being listed. AREX works exclusively with accounting partners to provide accurate financial pictures of both borrowing firms and their debtors, hence creating a more comprehensive firm’s financial picture while minimizing default risks. Due to this, SMEs typically get lower interest rates while investors got predictable returns with an extremely attractive risk/return ratio

This strategy was successful in markets like Finland but not in others like the UK or Spain, and the company needed to find other solutions (from 2022 to 2023) to introduce their products in new markets like embedding their product and services in 3rd-party products.

Role, responsibilities,
and team

Role: Lead the UX, UI and Research and script, collaborating directly with the Head of Product.

The Problem

AREX pivoted to a new strategy to embed invoice financing into third-party products (Accounting Software, neobanks among others). Therefore, it was necessary to create demos to show potential customers what the product's user experience could look like when integrated into their interfaces.

It was important to show that the solution offered by AREX could be completely agnostic in both brand and service. The idea is that AREX could offer the service to third parties either as an integration or as a white-label solution that would appear to be just another feature the client has.

Solution

I designed a typical interface for Accounting Software. Its appearance had to be quite agnostic so that the look and feel wouldn’t overly influence the experience we wanted to showcase. We invented a brand for this software (Umbrella) since the strategy behind the new embedded service allowed us to offer it even as a white-label solution.

In the demo, we created a scenario where a company didn’t have a positive cash flow and needed to handle some invoices. These invoices could be financed — in fact, on the invoice creation screen, the user would be offered the option to finance one of them.

Following the flow, they could transparently see whether they were eligible for financing. If approved, they would see directly in their interface when the invoice was financed, when the funds were received, whether the debtor paid, and even recovering commission fees if applicable.

I led the UX, UI, research, and script, collaborating directly with the Head of Product. Together, we recorded a video demo that helped the C-Levels (Marketing, Sales, etc) share the idea with potential clients and stakeholders.

Thanks to this, some months later, the company was acquired in 2023 by another entity. That was considered a success for AREX.
 

The Prototype

This is a happy path prototype, please click the blue hints to follow the steps 😉.

María Rey. Based in Barcelona, working remotely.