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Andy Cagle
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ORLANDO, Fla. (Oct. 25, 2022) – Heading into the fourth quarter of 2022, LSQ, a leading provider of working capital management and finance solutions, is riding a wave of momentum and growth from a record first nine months of the year.
“LSQ has hit some important milestones so far this year,” said Vikas Shah, LSQ’s Chief Revenue Officer. “We have developed key new partnerships that have driven our diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, saw our first supply chain finance [SCF] program hit $1 billion in early payments to suppliers, doubled our number of SCF clients, originated our largest accounts receivable financing deal, and delivered innovative platform features to continue to grow our network and improve our customer experience.”
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Partnerships
So far in 2022, LSQ has created formal partnerships with the National Minority Supplier Development Council and affiliates in Michigan and Chicago, and the Diversity Consortium.
“Access to capital continues to be an impediment to growth for our minority business enterprises (MBEs),” said Isaiah Spears, Director of Development and Strategic Partnerships with ChicagoMSDC. “Providing access to capital from corporate buyers that our MBEs are working with is an innovative approach to strengthening business relationships and creating more diverse supply chains and the Council is thrilled to partner with LSQ in this endeavor.”
Shah points out that the LSQ team’s focus on supporting MBEs is gaining momentum and paying dividends for traditionally underbanked businesses.
“We have been working with a number of enterprise partners to create SCF programs tailored to their minority suppliers and have seen success in alleviating the funding challenges of MBEs especially in today’s challenging macroeconomic environment of rising interest rates and tightening credit,” said Shah.
Customer and Network Growth
In addition to hitting the $1 billion mark in early payments in a single SCF program (in just under 15 months from inception), LSQ created a large accounts receivable finance facility for Continuum Global Solutions, a provider of omnichannel contact center services worldwide via voice and non-voice channels such as chat, email, and social media. The facility is the largest accounts receivable facility in LSQ’s 26-year history.
According to LSQ National Sales Director Renee Jackson, LSQ created more than $250 million in new credit facilities for several new customers ranging from small, mid-market to large enterprise organizations
“We are seeing prospects and customers who are more focused on holistic partnerships around accounts receivable management with companies as opposed to just financing,” said Jackson. “Our sales team has done a fantastic job of taking the time to learn the needs of our customers and work with our underwriters to create flexibility to meet the rapidly evolving needs for working capital.”
As for overall SCF growth, LSQ has seen a 300-percent increase in network growth in terms of corporate clients, suppliers onboarded and addressable spend on the LSQ FastTrack® platform in the first three quarters of 2022.
“With the current economic climate, we are seeing a renewed emphasis on working capital and supply chain health,” said Shah. “Beyond that, businesses are focusing on tools that improve efficiency in their procurement and accounts payable and receivable processes. Combining those important factors in one solution is where we are seeing huge wins for customers on the FastTrack platform.”
Platform Innovations
To support customer growth, FastTrack has added several new innovative features to help drive efficiency and open new avenues for working capital optimization and cost savings.
Pay Later
As an industry first, LSQ also expanded its solution to include a Pay Later option that allows businesses to gain immediate and on-demand working capital improvement without extending terms to suppliers.
“Traditionally, enterprises participating in a supply chain finance program gain the working capital lift by extending payment terms and offering early payments through a third-party funder,” said Shah. “But in today’s economic environment with tighter credit and constrained supply chains, we are seeing less appetite for supplier terms extensions, so companies are having to find new ways to improve near-term cash flow.”
With Pay Later, suppliers gain access to affordable early invoice payments like any supply chain finance program without sacrificing speed, transparency and certainty, but, on the back end, buyers can extend repayment to LSQ beyond the originally set terms. Buyers get immediate and on-demand access to working capital while their accounts payable and procurement teams work towards optimizing supplier terms over time.
Credit Memos
Another innovation is an advanced automation that allows for the configuration of credit memos to seamlessly apply credits to invoices within FastTrack. The enhancements eliminate the need for manual input to offset invoice credits from a supplier with that supplier’s new invoices. This functionality gives LSQ the ability to address myriad enterprise use cases to meet the process requirements of customers.
Customer Credit Management
Customer credit management has long been one of the tenets of LSQ’s working capital offerings. Leveraging its 26 years of credit data experience, LSQ began offering an expanded Accounts Receivable Insights solution to both existing accounts receivable finance and new customers. With this new offering, customers have access to reports showing growth trends, customer exposure, and industry benchmarking among a bevy of data showing transaction behavior. These reports can be used to:
- Fully understand customer’s performance and risk
- Monitor and manage exposure across the customer base
- Improve payment terms based on customer credit profiles
- Optimize DSO through efficient and effective customer management
“The working capital landscape has changed dramatically in 2022,” said Vikas. “With rising interest rates and the tightening of credit, companies are having to be extra diligent to maintain liquidity to ensure financial health. I am proud of the work that LSQ has done to create flexible solutions for our clients to keep them ahead of the changing currents and am looking forward to growing our solutions and the relationships we have built.”
About LSQ | lsq.com
LSQ is a market leader and pioneer in working capital finance and payments solutions. For more than 25 years, LSQ has leveraged innovative technology, credit and risk expertise, and proprietary data that empowers thousands of businesses to optimize their working capital, automate and accelerate payments, manage collections, and mitigate risk. Every year, we accelerate billions of dollars in payments to businesses and their suppliers through our LSQ FastTrack platform to help them obtain the funds they need to grow and thrive. LSQ is headquartered in Orlando, Florida. Learn more at www.lsq.com.
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