C2FO, an on-demand working capital platform, surpassed $400 billion in December in lifetime funding to its customers and achieved $1 billion of daily funding for the first time.
These milestones reflect a significant shift in the business financing landscape, with companies increasingly seeking more effective sources of financing as they move away from relying solely on banking and credit-based lending for working capital.
In 2024, C2FO facilitated the early payment of more than 42 million invoices, which were paid an average of 32 days early to the companies comprising the supply chains of over 200 of C2FO’s global enterprise clients, including six of the Fortune 10 companies.
The demand for alternative sources of working capital shows no signs of slowing after years of exponential growth for the fintech founded in 2008. C2FO reached $400 billion in accelerated funding just over a year after surpassing $300 billion in funding in July 2023. Reliable sources of working capital continue to be an issue for small businesses. Loan approval rates for small businesses from large banks remained below 50% for the fourth consecutive quarter and saw a continued decline throughout 2024, according to results from the Small Business Lending Survey released by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in December.
At the same time, businesses have to contend with longer payment terms. In an analysis of nearly $2 trillion in accounts payable reviewed by C2FO, the average time it takes to be paid increased from 34 days in 2019 to 41 days today.
As a result, government agencies and international forums, like the G20, B20, United Nations and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, are increasingly recognizing the need for more sustainable and innovative ways to facilitate working capital through platforms such as C2FO in recent policy papers and forums. In May 2024, the company announced its first nationwide platform with the launch of C2treds, becoming the first U.S.-based fintech to be approved by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to facilitate payments through the Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS) for the financing and discounting of trade receivables of midsize and small enterprises (MSMEs).
Currently, C2treds is facilitating $200 million of funding to more than 300 MSMEs, with more companies anticipated to join the platform following new mandates that go into effect in March 2025, requiring all Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) and corporations with annual revenues above ₹250 crores, or approximately $29 million, to register with TReDS.
In October, IFC announced plans to partner with C2FO to launch the first nationwide working capital platform for MSMEs in Africa later in 2025. The program’s impact is estimated to unlock as much as $25 billion in annual financing for MSMEs. IFC has estimated that for every $1 million of working capital made available in developing countries, 16 new jobs are created over two years.
“It has been a great four months for the team and for the hundreds of thousands of customers we serve. We produced record profitability in September, signed our global partnership with IFC in October, celebrated our first day above $900 million in funding in November — then to end the year by crossing over $1 billion in daily funding in December and to see a strong increase in profitability over September was an amazing capstone to a fantastic year,” Alexander “Sandy” Kemper, founder and CEO of C2FO, said. “The success of the past year only demonstrates the tremendous need for more efficient and affordable capital and the need to unlock the trillions of dollars of trapped cash that still exists. Now, we are even more determined to take this great momentum into the new year of 2025.”
