What GRID Finance does

GRID Finance (legal entity GRID Finance Impact Limited) is an Irish-headquartered fintech founded in 2013 that provides revenue-linked financing products to small and medium-sized enterprises in Ireland. The company's core products are a Merchant Cash Advance targeted at B2C SMEs (typically retail, hospitality, and e-commerce), a Flexible Repayment Facility for B2B borrowers, equipment leasing, and GRID Finance Insights, a real-time benchmarking and credit-scoring analytics tool. Underwriting is driven by consented open-banking data feeds that produce a proprietary Banking Health Score combining unpaid-transaction share, balance-turnover ratios, and turnover stability, with AI-assisted document processing via Docsumo to accelerate approvals.

GRID operates under Central Bank of Ireland authorization and is a signatory of the European Code of Good Conduct for Microcredit; it is also a certified B Corp. The firm is headquartered in Dublin with offices in Limerick and Caldas da Rainha, Portugal, and reports a 4,000+ Irish SME customer base with €200M+ cumulatively funded and a 92% NPS.

The business model combines a discount on future card or business sales with arrangement fees and transaction fees, effectively earning a blended yield on capital deployed to borrowers. Distribution mixes self-serve digital onboarding with industry-specific account management, a partner referral program, and outreach via the GRID Foundation. In May 2022 the company secured a €100 million debt facility from Fasanara Capital to scale SME lending in Ireland and beyond, indicating institutional validation of its underwriting and origination model.

Name

GRID Finance

Legal name

GRID Finance Impact Limited

Website

https://gridfinance.ie

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

GRID Finance is an Irish fintech that provides revenue-linked financing — merchant cash advances, a B2B flexible repayment facility, and equipment leasing — to more than 4,000 Irish SMEs, supplemented by an open-banking-driven benchmarking analytics tool.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

SME Alternative Lending

NAICS

Sales Financing (52222), Nondepository Credit Intermediation (5222)

SIC

Short-Term Business Credit Institutions (6153), Finance Lessors (6172)

akta.pro primary industry

Merchant Cash Advance (MCA) & Revenue-Based Financing (FSAKAGAD)

Keywords

• SME business lending
• Merchant cash advance
• Flexible repayment financing
• Alternative business finance
• Open banking lending

Headquarters

HQ city

Dublin

HQ country

Ireland

HQ region

Europe

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Receivables Purchase Agreement - Discounting Revenue: GRID purchases future sales/receivables from the business and adds a fixed discounting cost at the outset. This cost is redeemed over the estimated term of the facility through daily repayments tied to business revenue. For example, a €10,000 advance over 12 months costs €1,401.18 (effective discounting rate ~11.66%), and over 6 months costs €700.59 (effective rate ~6.19%). The facility operates as a discount on future sales rather than a traditional APR loan.
2. GRID Arrangement Fee: A fixed arrangement fee of €5 per €100 borrowed (e.g., €500 for a €10,000 facility), charged when the facility is activated. This is incorporated into the facility so the customer receives the full amount requested.
3. Smart Settlement Account Transaction Fees: Each transaction (in or out) in the Smart Settlement Account costs 49 cents. For a typical B2C customer with one terminal settling 5 days a week, this costs approximately €4.90 per week.
4. Direct Debit Processing Fees: Each direct debit repayment on the B2B Flexible Repayment Facility incurs a 49 cent charge. Bounced direct debits also attract surcharges per the funding agreement's terms and conditions.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

GRID Finance provides flexible, revenue-linked financing products to Irish SMEs through three core offerings: a Merchant Cash Advance for B2C businesses that takes a fixed percentage of daily card sales via a smart settlement account, a Flexible Repayment Facility for B2B businesses that uses a 5-day rolling revenue average to set daily direct-debit repayments, and equipment leasing. The platform is powered by open banking connections and a proprietary real-time business credit scoring engine (GRID Insights), enabling 48-hour credit decisions and rolling credit facilities from €10,000 to €500,000.

Product overview

GRID Finance is an Irish fintech company offering a unified financial services platform for SMEs, built around three core funding products: Merchant Cash Advance (B2C) for businesses taking card payments, Flexible Repayment Facility (B2B) for businesses receiving bank transfers, and GRID Finance Leasing for equipment purchases. All three funding products share a common flexible repayment architecture tied to daily revenue, allowing repayments to flex with the business's cash flow. The platform also includes GRID Finance Insights, an analytics add-on providing real-time business credit scoring and peer benchmarking, accessible via web and mobile apps. The company operates as a rolling credit facility provider, with facilities typically running up to 12 months and renewable upon repayment. The GRID Foundation serves as the company's research and advocacy arm, operating independently from the commercial product line.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Merchant Cash Advance (B2C Businesses) Flexible financing for B2C businesses that take card payments, where a fixed percentage of daily card sales is automatically deducted via a Smart Settlement Account to repay the facility. Funding from €10,000 to €500,000, with access up to 150% of monthly credit card volume. Repayments flex with cash flow, eliminating fixed monthly obligations.
• Flexible Repayment Facility (B2B Businesses) Flexible funding for B2B businesses that receive customer payments via bank transfer. Daily direct-debit repayments are calculated from a 5-day rolling average of turnover via a read-only open banking connection, flexing automatically with the business's trading income. Funding from €10,000 to €500,000 with €0.49 per direct debit transaction fee.
• GRID Finance Leasing
• GRID Finance Insights Real-time business credit score and financial analytics platform for Irish SMEs. Provides a banking health score, peer benchmarking (Similar Businesses feature), and spending categorization comparisons against industry peers. Available on web dashboard and mobile apps (iOS and Android). Described as the only real-time business credit score for businesses in Ireland.

Quantifiable outcome

• 92% Net Promoter Score (NPS) from customers
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

AI capability4 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Fire Financial ServicescoreTechnology or IntegrationFire Financial Services is a digital payments processor regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. GRID has partnered with Fire to provide the Smart Settlement Account for B2C businesses, which is the core infrastructure enabling automatic repayment deductions from card and online payments. This integration is fundamental to GRID's merchant cash advance product.
• Open Banking ProviderscoreTechnology or IntegrationGRID uses open banking connections (regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland) to access read-only business banking data for underwriting assessments and to calculate 5-day rolling revenue averages for B2B repayment facilities. Open banking is essential for GRID's automated, real-time credit and repayment platform.
• Cardfox (Payment Processor Review Partner)minorGTM or Marketing PartnerGRID has recommended Cardfox to customers for payment processor cost and service reviews, and passes on customer details to Cardfox. This represents a co-marketing/referral relationship in the payments ecosystem.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• iwoca: UK-based SME lender providing flexible working capital (€1k–€1M) to small businesses using proprietary underwriting. Most directly comparable to GRID given similar revenue-linked / flexible repayment philosophy and UK/Ireland SME market focus.
• Capify: UK merchant cash advance provider offering funding repaid via fixed percentage of card sales to SMEs. Closely matches GRID's B2C MCA product architecture and target customer (card-accepting SMEs in retail/hospitality).
• Liberis: Global embedded finance platform providing revenue-based financing to SMEs via partnerships with payment processors and SaaS platforms. Comparable revenue-linked model and embedded distribution strategy aligned with GRID's payment-processor integration approach.
• Velocity (Velocity Financial Group): UK-based specialist funder providing working capital solutions to SMEs. Offers flexible revenue-linked repayment facilities comparable to GRID's B2B Flexible Repayment Facility, targeting similar UK/Ireland SME segments.
• Wayflyer: Ireland-founded revenue-based financing provider for e-commerce and DTC brands. Same home market, similar flexible repayment philosophy tied to business revenue, comparable customer base of growth-stage SMEs.
• Clearco: Revenue-based financing platform for founders and SMEs, offering capital repaid via fixed percentage of revenue. Comparable non-dilutive financing model and SME focus, though primarily serving higher-growth e-commerce/SaaS segments.
• YouLend: UK embedded finance provider delivering revenue-based financing to SMEs via bank and software partner integrations. Compares to GRID on flexible revenue-linked repayment structure and embedded distribution strategy.

Broad incumbents

• Funding Circle: Established UK P2P/SME lending platform (now public) with broader loan products and institutional funding. Less specialised than GRID on revenue-linked flexible repayments but addresses overlapping Irish SME market.
• Shopify Capital: Embedded revenue-based financing arm of Shopify offering merchant cash advances to platform merchants. Represents big-tech competition GRID faces on e-commerce SMEs, with massive distribution advantage.
• Stripe Capital: Embedded financing product offering working capital to businesses using Stripe's payment platform. Comparable revenue-linked MCA model with global scale and lower cost of capital — a key competitive threat.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/gridfinance
• Facebookfacebook.com/GRIDFinance
• LinkedInie.linkedin.com/company/grid-finance-and-analytics
• Instagraminstagram.com/gridfinance

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors2 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about GRID Finance