Invoice finance companies are in demand, with two finance companies announcing acquisitions of smaller rivals yesterday.

Receivables finance company CML Group has bounced back from its failed merger with Affinity Equity Partners, the owner of Scottish Pacific, announcing yesterday that it will acquire Skippr Invoice Finance.

Meanwhile, Grow Finance is acquiring Australian Invoice Finance, which was launched in 2017.

It is Grow’s second takeover in a year; last September it took over Eclipx Commercial.

Skippr was launched in 2016 and specialises in providing an easy-to-use online platform for small business with receivables books of less than $200,000.

CML is paying $6.5 million (if all earn-outs are achieved) for a business with a loan book worth just $1.2 million.

It is not buying Skippr for its balance sheet. It said in a statement that it has not had a strong presence in the small business segment of the market, which it has not been able to service profitably.

Since Skippr launched its platform in October last year it has onboarded 25 clients at an average client acquisition cost of $2000. CML’s historical cost of acquisition is around $20,000.

“The Skippr platform now provides CML with the capability to profitably service smaller clients, access smaller clients that will become larger clients and improve client retention through a better and more automated experience for existing and new clients,” it said.