Drip Capital, a cross-border trade finance provider, has raised US$175mn in a funding round, which it plans to use on expanding into new markets.

The funding is made up of a US$100mn warehouse credit facility with new investor Barclays Investment Bank, as well as a US$35mn increase to an existing warehouse facility with East West Bancorp to US$75mn. Alongside this is a US$40mn series C investment, which was led by San Francisco-based venture investor TI Platform and saw participation from existing Drip Capital investors Accel, Sequoia, Wing VC, Irongrey and GC1 Holdings.

Drip Capital offers buyer financing solutions – supply chain finance and inventory finance –to SME importers in the US. Meanwhile, in developing markets including India and Mexico, the company offers invoice discounting. Since its inception in 2016, it has financed over US$2bn of trade for over 1,500 sellers and buyers spread across more than 80 countries.

The fintech company says it will use the new cash to scale up its business over the next 18 months, adding that it will invest in products and technology and accelerate go-to-market in existing and new geographies like South Asia and Latin America.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has put severe pressure on cash flows of exporters and importers alike. This strain is being felt most by small and medium businesses who have never had easy access to capital,” says Pushkar Mukewar, CEO and co-founder of Drip Capital. “We are excited to welcome TI Platform and Barclays to help further our mission to make global trade easy and accessible to small and medium businesses across the world.”

Drip Capital also plans to launch a new trade facilitation platform. While details of the platform are sparse for the time being, the company say it will be “designed to alleviate the pain points of small businesses while collaborating with participants across the value chain, including shipping lines, payment processors and insurance providers”.