Investly, a UK-based invoice finance fintech firm, has appointed Wayne Hughes as its new CEO.

A seasoned working capital executive, Hughes brings over 25 years of experience working in the UK’s financial services industry, including senior roles with leading alternative financiers such as Demica and Bibby Financial Services.

He joined Investly in May as consultant chief commercial officer.

Now appointed the firm’s CEO, Hughes has been charged with “making Investly the leading receivables finance platform across the UK and rest of Europe”, the company writes in a statement.

Investly launched its invoice finance platform for working capital and e-invoice providers last month. The platform, which allows businesses to sell their invoices, employs emerging technology to improve the speed and drive down the cost of financing, while expanding the reach of businesses that can be served sustainably.

For example, the platform utilises open banking APIs to allow businesses to onboard seamlessly by connecting it to their bank accounts. The APIs also help the fintech firm to perform up-to-date monitoring for changes in credit risk to prevent fraud and overextension of limits.

In a statement, Hughes says that while market and media commentary tend to focus on fintech’s disruption of incumbent players, he will rather seek to establish “mutually beneficial partnerships across the industry”.

“I believe the true value exists in cooperative B2B relationships between fintech partners and existing market participants,” he says.

And so instead of going after banks’ businesses directly, Investly is focusing on making its technology available for large origination partners which can then extend invoice discounting to their customers without having to build it in-house.

Siim Maivel, founder and the previous CEO of Investly, now assumes the role of chief data officer.

He says: “Working with the significantly larger pools of customers of our partners opens up further tools for data-driven credit decisioning, fraud prevention and automation. I will be carrying our long-held vision towards machine assisted credit decisioning engine in our next phase of growth as chief data officer. Credit intelligence will be key in becoming a market leader and sustaining healthy credit model.”