eCommerce Finance that Just Clicks...

When this well-known Irish eCommerce brand wanted capital to fund their growing business, they chose to raise funds with Linked Finance.

Established in 2004, Schoolbooks.ie was an early eCommerce business supplying school books and other educational materials to students and parents across Ireland.

The site was acquired by Andy Byrne and Paul McCann of Entrepreneur Supplies Limited in 2012 and since then, their company has turned the site into a market leader.

Schoolbooks.ie provides parents and students with a one-stop, online source for textbooks, learning resources, and other course materials for primary and secondary school.

The business is now the largest single retailer of school books in Ireland, processing over 2,200 orders per day in the peak summer season.

CEO, Paul McCann, describes selling school books online as 'high-altitude training for online retailers'. Supplying school books presents one of the most challenging retail markets. It yields huge seasonal peaks, very poor supply chain, and a highly demanding customer base.

Having overcome the challenges of school books, Andy and Paul have been able to leverage the skills, experience and infrastructure they developed into other successful eCommerce sites.

More recent additions to their online empire include WallStickersForKids.ie and Onesieful.com.

With their sights set on growing their business, Paul and Andy came to Linked Finance in November 2018. Having used the site previously to secure funding, they knew what to expect but didn't realise just how easy things could be.

On this occasion, they were hoping to secure €210,000 in order to fuel the development of international versions of their successful Irish site.

 

 

“We emailed Linked Finance the last of our bank statements and other docs at 4:27pm on a Wednesday. By 7:36pm on the same day, the funding was ready for draw down. We had high hopes for Linked Finance but this surpassed all our expectations.”

Paul McCann
Schoolbooks.ie

 

The loan was approved and funded in record time and with the finance in place, Andy and Paul were ready to forge ahead with their plans.

SchoolBooks.ie is a real success story and that success rests largely on two key factors: the quality of the service they provide and the simplicity of their business model.

In fact, SchoolBooks.ie shares a lot of similarities with Linked Finance - two tech-driven businesses transforming age-old industries with a real focus on ease and simplicity.

In the same way that SchoolBooks.ie has revolutionised the way parents shop for school books, Linked Finance is on a mission to make business lending better for Irish SMEs.

Both companies are focused on using technology to make things faster, easier and more efficient. So it should come as no surprise that when these two companies combined, things just clicked.

“We're hugely impressed with Linked Finance: the speed at which decisions are made, the response rate, their ability to deliver and their willingness to increase the size of their loans as our business grows. The flexibility that arises from no early settlement fees is just icing on the cake for us. We recommend them to every SME we meet.”

Paul McCann
Schoolbooks.ie

 

If you've got plans to take your business to the next level, talk to Linked Finance. We can provide business loans of up to €300,000 to Irish SMEs. Fill in the form to apply now...