London-listed inventory finance firm Supply@Me Capital has disclosed that a financing arrangement with a related party has failed to deliver funds required to address “urgent” cash flow concerns. 

Supply@Me, which was launched in 2020 and provides an “inventory monetisation” platform for companies seeking to boost working capital, announced in March it had secured an on-demand convertible funding facility with Nuburu, a New York Stock Exchange-listed technology company. 

The facility would provide US$5.5mn across seven tranches, and followed efforts by Supply@Me “to secure alternative sources of funding to address the urgent cashflow needs of the group”, a March filing with the London Stock Exchange shows. 

Colorado-based Nuburu, which produces blue laser technology for industrial applications, described the facility in an April announcement as a “strategic investment”. 

However, Supply@Me said in corporate filings last week that it had received only part of the second tranche and none of the third, leaving a shortfall of US$1.13mn. 

Supply@Me’s chief executive, Alessandro Zamboni, told the board Nuburu was “facing certain technical and regulatory limitations in complying with the original payment schedule” and is “working to resolve this as soon as possible”. 

Zamboni is also executive chairman of Nuburu, filings show. He did not comment when contacted by GTR. 

The facility between Supply@Me and Nuburu was arranged after the non-performance of a £3.5mn shareholder loan agreement with another related company, Italy-based The AvantGarde Group (TAG). 

Zamboni is director and ultimate beneficial owner of TAG. TAG has applied for restructuring after the auditors of its 2023 financial statements did not agree it was a going concern. 

March filings from Supply@Me suggested the company may have been set to benefit from funding provided to Nuburu by another company, SFE Equity Investments. 

It said that if SFE Equity Investments made up to US$3mn available to Nuburu, Nuburu would then be able to accelerate the payment schedule agreed with Supply@Me. 

SFE Equity Investments also has ties to Zamboni through TAG, which holds a non-controlling ownership interest in its parent company. 

Although Nuburu said in April it had secured additional funding, it is not clear from corporate filings whether the potential transaction with SFE Equity Investments was concluded. 

Nuburu announced on May 5 it had received a notice of non-compliance from the New York Stock Exchange after reporting continued operating losses and negative cash flows with “no assurance that the company will be able to raise sufficient capital in the future”. 

The funding difficulties described by Supply@Me follow the resignation of its former auditors, Crowe UK, in September last year. 

The company said in September that Crowe UK “resigned having carried out a reassessment of the risks related to auditing the company and concluding that they were not willing to continue to act as auditors”. 

Supply@Me has subsequently appointed London-based Bright Graham Murray, but was unable to finalise audited accounts ahead of its April 30 deadline. 

Its shares have been suspended since May 1, and the company says it will apply for the suspension to be lifted once its 2024 audited accounts have been published. 

Supply@Me told GTR in 2021 it had a pipeline of new business worth around £1.5bn. 

Corporate filings from 2021 show this figure reflects the potential value of inventory that could be monetised on its platform from 126 prospective clients. 

It said in December 2024 filings that inventory totalling £3.5mn had been financed through its platform to date, up from £1.9mn three months earlier. It said its client inventory monetisation pipeline, based on signed letters of interest or term sheets, was worth around £125mn. 

The company has also announced it is now prioritising a programme of “plain-vanilla” inventory and receivables financing using its platform, with an overall value of up to US$135mn.