French fintech Aria receives €50 million in debt financing from M&G Investments

This is in addition to €20 million already secured in 2022. With this transaction, French fintech, a leading company in the embedded invoice financing market, increases its financial capacity and accelerates its business development by expanding its offer.

Aria develops a financial solution implemented via API to B2B marketplaces and vertical SaaS, aiming to offer instant payment options to its customers. Thanks to this debt collection, Aria will be able to finance the invoices of freelancers and SMEs, for whom the need for cash flow is a central issue, especially in an unfavorable and uncertain macroeconomic context.

As a result of the decline in bank lending, SMEs are looking for alternative funding sources such as invoice financing. However, this type of service is only offered by banks to their key account customers for distribution and fraud risk reasons.

Embedded lending is about providing financing directly implemented into the software and marketplaces used by these small businesses. This addresses the needs of a highly underserved population, with an excellent user experience, better risk analysis and controlled distribution.
In two years, the startup has become the leading solution for freelancers, attracting marketplaces like Malt, Brigad, StaffMe and Acracy, vertical SaaS companies like Jump and more traditional recruitment agencies like Sept-Lieues.

In the last twelve months, the fintech business volume has increased 20 times, surpassing the milestone of 100 million euros in terms of financing for customers. Aria is now positioning itself as the market leader. During the upswing, the embedded lending sector is experiencing rapid growth of 38.9% per year, reaching €7.8 billion in 2022, with prospects of €26.7 billion by 2029.
Having been focused on solutions offered to the freelancers, and thanks to this debt raising, Aria plans to expand its offering to new verticals by addressing marketplaces and SaaS dedicated to VSEs and SMEs.

Aria also plans to increase its total payroll by 60% by 2023, by recruiting 15 new profiles. These include the three main areas of the company: tech/product, operations and finance, marketing and sales.

Vincent Charles Gervais, Partner at M&G Investments commented: “We are delighted to have closed a €50 million private bilateral securitization with the talented Aria team. M&G Structured Credit Fund made this multi-tranche investment to support the rapidly growing freelance economy in France, further contributing to the development of the Future of Work”.

Clément Carrier, Aria co-founder and CEO commented: “We founded Aria with the ambition to give all businesses access to financing solutions. And this, regardless of the financial situation they are in. We therefore offer the opportunity for freelancers and small businesses to get paid immediately and directly using the tools and services they use on a daily basis. This funding will strengthen Aria’s position and at the same time give us the opportunity to continue our growth on a European scale. We are pleased to see the confidence and interest of a leading European investor who M&G Investments in our business.”

Vincent Folny, Aria co-founder and COO added: “We are delighted to have closed a debt facility with M&G, a prestigious FTSE100 insurance company. This partnership will allow us to successfully achieve our European expansion and scale our credit activities for better to serve freelancers and SMEs with financing solutions.”