A new tool is gaining ground in Italy in support of the large-scale retail chain (Gdo), a market worth 83 billion (source Mediobanca report). It is about the so-called dynamic discounting, i.e. an innovative formula for financing the working capital of companies: it basically allows supplier companies to request, through a technological platform, the advance payment of your invoices directly to the client company, against a discount the amount of which varies according to the number of days in advance requested. Already widespread abroad, dynamic discounting has been adapted to the Italian market by FinDynamic, a fintech startup founded in 2016 and in which Unicredit has already invested, acquiring a 10% stake.
FinDynamic has among its partners the group Unicomm, one of the protagonists of the large-scale distribution which belongs to Selex, the third reality of modern distribution in Italy with a market share of around 12% and a turnover of around 10 billion. Unicomm celebrates its 50th anniversary this year and has more than 270 direct sales outlets in seven regions of the Centre-North: it is the first large-scale distribution group in Italy to have experimented with the Findynamic platform, and the choice turned out to be successful as evidenced by the results achieved in the first months of the implementation of the partnership, which has the advantage not only of the possibility of requesting an advance but also the absence of fixed costs and bureaucracy, to name a few.
“Our service – revealed Enrico Viganò, founder and CEO of FinDynamic – has been adopted by all the suppliers involved by Unicomm in the pilot project: the balance of more than 80% of the invoices has been requested and obtained, with an average of 40 days in advance”. The test phase was launched at the beginning of 2019 and involved an initial selection of suppliers of various types, touching various company areas: suppliers of food products, of the technical office and of the marketing area, with companies both both large and small. Following the positive experience of these first nine months, by the end of November the activity will come alive: more than 200 suppliers will become involved, thus forming a very representative sample of Unicomm supplier companies.
These additional 200 subjects were chosen by identifying a mix of different companies in terms of turnover, type and characteristics. “The collaboration with FinDynamic – explained Lorenzo Cestaro, shareholder of Unicomm – has extraordinary potential. For us it is a further tool for building a positive relationship with our suppliers, to whom we want to offer an extra service. Indeed, they are the ones who choose whether or not to ask for an advance on the invoice according to the needs of the moment. We are proud to have been the first large-scale distribution entity to have implemented a platform like this, opening a path that, we are sure, will soon be followed by others".
