Twinco Capital, a global supply chain finance outfit that covers the production cycle from purchase order to final invoice payment, has raised $12 million in an equity and debt round.
The investment was led by Quona Capital and joined by Working Capital and existing investors Mundi Ventures and Finch Capital. Zubi Capital provided the venture debt portion.
Amsterdam and Madrid-based Twinco was founded in 2019 by veteran banker Sandra Nolasco and Carmen Marín with a focus on the fashion and retail sectors.
The company works with large corporations — mostly in the retail and apparel sectors — and offers funding to their suppliers worldwide, advancing up to 60% of the purchase order value upfront and paying the remainder upon delivery.
The startup has programmes in place serving European and Latin American retailers who buy more than $10 billion per year of manufactured products, mostly from SMEs in emerging markets. On the other side, it has onboarded more than 100 suppliers, located in 12 different countries including Bangladesh, China, Pakistan, South Korea, Turkey, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Spain.
Twinco's risk model uses machine learning to evaluate the quality and strength of the commercial relationships between buyers and their suppliers. The firm collects data that stems from the intersection of commercial, financial and ESG performance of the thousands of manufacturers involved in supply chains.
Says Nolasco: "Extraordinary events, such as those experienced these past years, have revealed the fragility of supply chains, which are historically unable to adapt to the complexity of global production networks.
"At Twinco, we propose a radical change in how to use finance as a tool to proactively transform global supply chains, to foster the participation of SMEs, improve efficiency and ensure responsible sourcing practices."