TL;DR: Small suppliers to large buyers wait weeks or months to get paid, and banks won't lend against their balance sheets. But the invoice itself is good collateral if the buyer is creditworthy. InvoiceDiscount lets an SME upload an approved invoice and get paid early by a financier, priced on the buyer's credit rather than the supplier's. Wedge: suppliers to large corporates in one sector, onboarded through the buyer.

PRD v2.0 · Product owner · Concept, not built

The problem

A supplier that's growing fast runs out of cash precisely because it's growing: every new order ties up working capital until a large buyer pays, often well beyond agreed terms.

Who Pain What they do today
SME supplier (user) Cash stuck in receivables; can't take bigger orders Owner's savings, informal lenders, overdraft at high rates
Large buyer (anchor) Supplier failures disrupt its supply chain Pays late anyway; no tool to help suppliers
Financier (bank / NBFC) Wants short-tenor, low-risk assets Can't assess thousands of small suppliers one by one

Evidence

This is a concept, not tested with users. The model already exists: India's RBI-regulated TReDS platforms price invoice risk on the buyer. The gap this PRD targets is the supplier's experience, which is still paperwork-heavy.

How it works

flowchart LR
	A["Buyer onboards<br>and invites suppliers"] --> B["Supplier uploads invoice<br>GST / e-invoice match"]
	B --> C{"Duplicate or<br>fraud check"}
	C -- "Pass" --> D["Buyer confirms<br>in one click"]
	C -- "Fail" --> X["Rejected"]
	D --> E["Financiers bid<br>on the confirmed invoice"]
	E --> F["Supplier accepts best rate<br>and is paid early"]
	F --> G["Buyer pays financier<br>on the due date"]
  1. Buyer onboards and invites its suppliers.
  2. Supplier uploads an invoice; the buyer confirms it in one click.
  3. Financiers bid on the confirmed invoice.
  4. Supplier accepts the best rate and gets paid early.
  5. Buyer pays the financier on the due date, as it would have paid the supplier.

Decisions and trade-offs

The insight. Underwriting 1,000 small suppliers is expensive. Underwriting the one large buyer they all sell to is cheap. Price the risk on the buyer, distribute through the buyer.

Decision Why What it cost
Anchor-led distribution through the buyer One buyer brings hundreds of suppliers and carries the credit risk Suppliers without a large buyer are out of scope
Only buyer-confirmed invoices Confirmation is what makes the invoice good collateral Buyer confirmation speed becomes the critical path
Platform, not lender Regulated entities lend; we avoid lending licence scope Less control over pricing and approval speed
One sector and two committed financiers at launch Enough bids per invoice from day one Slower expansion

What I cut