Paytech start-up Juno, regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and backed by £1.6 million of seed investment from angel and venture capital investors, has launched the first digital payments platform in the UK to fully leverage Open Banking technology.
Juno operates in the bank-to-bank payments space, making payments between businesses simpler, faster and more secure with its request-led payment process.
By automating the request for payment (invoice) process that is still mostly manual for nearly half of UK small businesses, Juno aims to make late payments a thing of the past.
According to research commissioned for report, ‘The real cost of late payments in the UK’, nearly 70% of small businesses are paid late by suppliers, which is impacting the mental health of owners. 63% of small businesses claimed they were suffering from stress, anxiety and/or depression as a result of cash flow issues caused by late payments. Two in 10 businesses said they were at risk of bankruptcy or business closure and 1 in 10 are thinking of making or have made redundancies.
These startling findings suggest that the culture and status of late payment in the UK has reached crisis point. As many as 50,000 businesses close every year due to late payments, and the pandemic is thought to have exacerbated the issue according to the Federation of Small Businesses.
Pete Bailey, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Juno says, “Small businesses are the lifeblood of our economy, yet many are struggling to get back on their feet after the pandemic. We’re on a mission to support them getting paid on time and, by digitising the payment process, stop the time they waste chasing and managing payments; ultimately supporting a stronger cash flow and meaning they can survive and thrive.”
The paytech leader, which has been building its product over the last year, already has a team of 14 people, who have joined from companies such as CapGemini, Ratesetter and Nutmeg. Juno expects to double the size of its team next year.
Juno will interface with every major European Bank through the Open Banking framework, eliminating the need for users to access their bank accounts or share card details to pay, effectively masking the details that criminals rely on to commit card fraud and making payments faster and more secure.
Further intelligent automation will be added to upcoming product versions including automatic payment of invoices by due date, automatic cash flow updates, optical character recognition (OCR) to eliminate manual input of invoice details and integration with accounting software.
Consumers can also use the app to request and make payments effortlessly, making chasing money owed from friends, family and housemates a thing of the past. They can split bills and other expenses and get paid instantly by sharing a secure payment email, link or QR code.
Founders and funders
Backed with £1.6 million in seed funding from angel investors and three venture capital firms: Lakestar, the European VC firm that backed Spotify, OpenDoor and Revolut; the Six Group’s Fintech Venture Fund and JME Ventures, Juno is co-founded by Pete Bailey, tech entrepreneur; Darren Westlake, who serves as an advisor and is also CEO and co-founder of Crowdcube; and fintech entrepreneur Michael Wilkinson.