Louis Carbonnier, Co-Founder and Co-CEOHowever, conventional trade credit management involves offline credit checks, tedious paperwork, and other manual processes. These shortcomings pave the way for B2B BNPL as an affordable and time-saving alternative that streamlines the buyer experience and helps merchants to grow. It enables sellers to offer convenient trade credit options, improve cash flow, and boost business growth.
In addition, incumbent banks have been slow to react to the growing need for digital trade credit, forcing many merchants to offer payment terms off their own balance sheets, exposing their own cash flow to risk. Meanwhile, businesses such as invoice factoring companies have only been able to solve part of the problem.
Hokodo, Europe’s leading B2B BNPL provider, is shifting this paradigm with a cutting-edge technology platform that facilitates simple, safe and supported online trade between businesses. It improves the cash flow for all parties, while protecting sellers from bad debt, credit risks, and late payments with reliable credit terms. Essentially, Hokodo replaces manual, risky and offline payment procedures with an online platform where sellers can easily offer credit terms to buyers.
“Hokodo addresses e-commerce payment-related challenges for clients looking to attract the right business prospects in an era where recession and inflation are increasing interest rates,” says Louis Carbonnier, cofounder and co-CEO of Hokodo.
The Force Behind Hokodo’s Bnpl Intelligence
Founded by Carbonnier, Richard Thornton (co-CEO), and Sami Ben Hatit (CTO), Hokodo is a culmination of their financial services, technical engineering, structured risk management, banking, and insurance expertise. While working in the insurance sector, the trio identified that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) struggled to access trade credit, even if they had good payment records and posed little risk to sellers. Hokodo was established to bridge this financing gap and pave the way for firms of all types and sizes to access the financial services that can enable growth.
To efficiently manage risks and volatilities, Hokodo partners with Lloyd’s of London, an insurance and reinsurance market, and SCOR, one of the world’s largest reinsurers, to sign a delegated underwriting authority (DUA) that enables safe in-house credit and pricing decision-making. These partnerships allow Hokodo to guarantee that merchants will receive 100% of the payment they’re owed – even if the buyer is unable or unwilling to pay. Hokodo also has longstanding partnerships with e-commerce payment gateways and marketplace infrastructure solution providers like Mirakl, Lemonway, Mangopay, Sparklayer and Rixxo. Plugins for leading e-commerce platforms Shopify and Magento enable existing web stores to easily integrate with Hokodo and instantly offer BNPL options to their customers.
A Secure And Dependable B2b Payment Processing Platform
Hokodo’s proprietary underwriting and scoring infrastructure simplifies B2B payments and makes tedious, handwritten forms and account signups a thing of the past. It leverages several information sources to close liquidity gaps and boost the number of buyers who are eligible for credit.
“In e-commerce, even one second of latency can bring a 7% drop in conversion rates. To mitigate this, Hokodo delivers instant credit decisions and high acceptance rates that help merchants grow faster with increased confidence,” states Carbonnier.
B2B BNPL unifies all the building blocks of credit management including credit scoring, fraud detection, debt collections, receivables financing and credit insurance into one single API to solve the payment challenges plaguing the B2B space. Merchants offering credit to buyers via Hokodo experience 40% higher conversion rates, a 30% improved average order value (AOV), and 24% more monthly purchases. When payments are due, Hokodo conducts robust invoice collections processes and partners with debt collection agencies that guarantee to preserve the commercial relationships between buyers and sellers.
Hokodo addresses e-commerce payment-related challenges for clients looking to attract the right business prospects in an era where recession and inflation are increasing interest rates
Research indicates that up to 80% of all B2B transactions could be done digitally by 2025. As buyers and sellers move online, the need grows for reliable online payment infrastructures that are packaged up with the convenience of B2C. However, the successful solutions will come from those that understand the differences in credit analysis and fraudulent activities between B2B and B2C and respond by creating holistic, specialised and relevant payment models.
Hokodo has built a credit decisionmaking engine that provides fast, accessible and transparent approvals within one second.
But what does all this really mean? Let’s take a look at a few examples of Hokodo’s solutions in practice to find out.
Smoothing Seasonal Fluctuations With B2b Bnpl
Hokodo works with Ankorstore, a leading European B2B marketplace that connects suppliers with business buyers across the continent. Through real-time buyer eligibility assessment, credit insurance and robust collections, Hokodo helps Ankorstore customers to defer payment by 30 or 60 days. This creates an optimal checkout experience and personalised payment plans for buyers while suppliers benefit from upfront payments, no credit risks, and increased conversion rates and AOV. By injecting B2C financing convenience into Ankorstore, Hokodo has helped them acquire 200,000+ loyal business customers across Europe.
One such customer is Chinley Cheese, a fine food shop located in the UK’s peak district. Due to the seasonal nature of the business, Chinley Cheese owner Jonathan Berger knew that he would need to stock up on extra products in the run up to events like Christmas, while somehow deferring the cost until after his shop had started making profits. The partnership between Ankorstore and Hokodo has enabled Jonathan to access the products he needs without paying up front. This has negated any cash flow issues for Chinley Cheese without Jonathan having to pass on any costs to his loyal customers.
Empowering The Sme Economy With Harmonised Payments
Before partnering with Hokodo, European B2B plant wholesaler FlorAccess had been offering a fragmented form of trade credit to buyers by cobbling together various solutions from several providers. Further still, each of the 27 regions covered by FlorAccess involved a different combination of providers.
The result?
“It worked, but there was a lot of overhead. It wasn’t harmonised at all,” explains Ewoud Goorts, founder of FlorAccess. “We wanted to find a partner who could combine not only invoice insurance, but also the ability to factor it and finance the transactions.”
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In e-commerce, even one-second latency can bring a seven percent drop in conversion rates. to mitigate this, hokodo delivers impactful financing convenience that swiftly helps reach e-commerce business objectives
The Green House, an indoor plant retail store, initially struggled to find a suitable supplier due to its small size and relative lack of credit history, forcing owner Mark Walter to buy limited stock which would run out before it could be replenished. Upon discovering that he could access credit with FlorAccess via Hokodo, Mark knew he had found a supplier that was willing and able to support his small, local business. Through FlorAccess, The Green House gained access to an extensive selection of botanical goods, which they could pay for on credit terms thanks to Hokodo’s B2B BNPL solution.
Now, they could sell more, pay suppliers on their terms, and work toward building a brighter future for their business.
Building Trust In The Construction Industry
All of Hokodo’s solutions are equipped with a risk-bearing mechanism that guarantees protection against credit and fraud risks including non-payment, ID theft, chargebacks, and buyer insolvency. This ensures merchants receive the total payment amount of an invoice, even if the buyer fails to pay. This builds a level of trust with sellers that can’t be achieved if only 80% or 90% of an invoice is protected.
Yardlink is an online e-commerce platform that connects construction businesses with equipment and tool rentals across the UK. Hokodo helped them instil trust between buyers and sellers, allowing construction firms to purchase equipment on custom payment terms while providing suppliers with invoice protection and guaranteed payment. Hokodo has helped Yardlink to digitalise the construction industry by bringing equipment rental into the 21st century.
Facilitating Global Access To B2b Bnpl Solutions
Successes like these perfectly illustrate Hokodo’s commitment to supporting B2B trade and the SME economy, while fuelling a growing footprint across Europe. Hokodo has already helped 50,000+ businesses across the UK, Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Spain access a better way to pay.
In June 2022, Hokodo secured EUR 40 million (USD 42 million) in funding from a range of European investors including Notion Capital, Korelya Capital, Mundi Ventures, Opera Tech Ventures, and existing investors Anthemis and Mosaic Ventures. The new funding is being used to develop new product features and expand into new markets. The co-founders are looking to develop Hokodo into an ultimate payment solution that supports B2B merchants across online, in-store and telesales transactions.
Hokodo is on a mission to modernise B2B payments, working with best-inclass industry partners to provide B2B BNPL solutions with maximum uptime and minimum latency. By 2025, Hokodo aims to have helped 1 million businesses access a better way to pay – but this is only the beginning. As interest rates soar and recession looms, B2B Buy Now, Pay Later will enable businesses to access the credit they deserve for years to come.
