Business finance company Earlypay is moving on from a disappointing 2022/23 financial year, bulking up the business with the purchase of assets from invoice and trade finance specialist Timelio. Earlypay announced that it has entered into a binding agreement to acquire “selected assets” from Timelio, including customer receivables, intellectual property and software. Timelio will retain the cash balance released from its warehouse funding structure. The acquisition will add around A$35 million of invoice finance “funds in use” and around $5 million of trade finance. Timelio’s specialist SME lending team will join Earlypay. It is also acquiring Timelio’s Supplier Early Payment platform, which facilitates corporates paying supplier invoices early for a small discount. The purchase price is around $3 million, with a hold-back mechanism to contribute to post-acquisition credit losses. Payment will be in cash and scrip.  Timelio was founded in 2015 and in 2022 acquired Bendigo Bank’s invoice finance portfolio. Earlypay said the acquisition will be earnings per share accretive in the current year, as well as providing strategic benefits. The company is rebuilding after falling to a loss of $7.7 million in the year to June. It had $22.5 million of credit-related expenses, most of them due to the collapse of a single debtor, RevRoof, last December. Since then, Earlypay has made changes to its risk and operational framework, streamlined its credit underwriting process and improved client service functions. It is also working on a new invoice and trade warehouse facility, which it expects to have in place next month. At June 30, Earlypay reported funds in use of $172.8 million – up just 3 per cent on the previous year. With the acquisition and new warehouse, Earlypay is forecasting that originations will pick up next year.