UniCredit has taken a minority stake in FinDynamic, an Italian fintech company offering dynamic discounting programmes, as it seeks to enhance its working capital offering for corporate clients.

The amount and size of the stake were not disclosed, but the bank says the equity investment highlights its “willingness to partner with the right fintechs in order to drive innovation.”

Established in 2016 by former Bain consultant Enrico Viganó and software developer Ervis Jace, FinDynamic allows buyers and their suppliers to easily view invoices through a web-based or mobile platform, and select approved invoices for early payment. The discount is directly applied to the total amount of the invoice and its value changes dynamically in relation to the number of days discounted from the original invoice’s due date. This facilitates the use of the buyer’s strong cash position while providing liquidity to suppliers.

As a result of the agreement, UniCredit will now include the FinDynamic platform among the cash flow management and working capital optimisation services it offers to corporate customers.

Commenting on the deal, Francesco Giordano, UniCredit’s co-CEO of commercial banking for Western Europe, says: “UniCredit is strongly committed to developing innovative and efficient solutions for its clients. As part of this, we are collaborating with selected fintechs in order to improve our corporate client offering and meet changing client needs. We believe that the service offered by FinDynamic is the right fit for our clients’ and their suppliers’ working capital needs in the current market environment, providing a true value-add for all parties.”

UniCredit joins a growing number of banks that are choosing to invest in mature fintech-based working capital solutions rather than attempt to reinvent the wheel in-house. In February, South African bank Sasfin took a stake in Payabill, a digital lending platform that provides working capital and trade finance to small businesses, while earlier this month, Barclays led a US$5.5mn series A investment round for Crowdz, a US fintech firm looking to launch a global blockchain-based invoice exchange. This followed its purchase of a significant minority stake in MarketInvoice, Europe’s largest online invoice financing platform, in 2018.