Greensill, a UK-based supplier of alternative supply chain finance, has secured a $655 million follow-on investment from SoftBank Vision Fund.
The new tranche of capital comes just five months after the SoftBank fund ploughed $800 million into the firm, doubling its valuation to $3.5bn. In the past 14 months, Greensill has raised more than $1.7 billion.
Founded in 2011 by US investment banker Lex Greensill, the firm says it will use the funds to accelerate its international expansion plans and to fund strategic acquisitions.
The first of the acquisitions is FreeUp, a London-based company that is developing technology to enable workers to receive early payment for earned, but unpaid, wages at zero cost to the employee.
CEO Lex Greensill says that while supply chain finance programmes already allow a company’s suppliers to obtain early payment, FreeUp’s technology would allow Greensill to extend the service to a company’s workers.
A pilot of the new product will begin immediately, he adds, with a full launch to come in the next few months.