Aria, an embedded invoice financing platform, has closed a EUR 7 million Series A extension and launched a EUR 240 million debt facility to expand its financing capacity across Europe.
Equity round details
The EUR 7 million equity round was led by 115K, the venture capital arm of La Banque Postale, with participation from returning investor 13books Capital. The round brings Aria's total Series A funding to EUR 22 million. The company said the capital will be used to invest in AI tooling, fund new hires, and onboard additional clients. 115K will take a seat on Aria's board of directors.
Structure of the debt facility
The EUR 240 million debt facility is structured across two separate vehicles. The primary structure is a securitisation fund, a bankruptcy-remote vehicle led by Nomura with participation from Fost. Under this structure, Aria purchases invoices from suppliers and transfers the receivables to the fund, which issues securities to investors backed by future payments from buyers. As buyers settle their invoices, the resulting cash is recycled to finance new invoice purchases. In a separate legal vehicle, Sienna and Montpensier Arbevel have committed additional capital.
Growth to date and sector focus
The announcements follow a period of expansion for the company. Aria financed 1.7 million invoice advances in 2025 and more than 1.1 million further advances so far in 2026. The platform currently supports more than 70 of Europe's largest B2B marketplaces and freelance platforms, including Malt and Job&Talent. Since launching in 2020, Aria has financed more than EUR 1.5 billion in invoices, while maintaining a default rate below 0.1%. The company said it will continue expanding in sectors where late payment delays are most acutely felt, including transportation, manufacturing, and construction.
Addressing Europe's late payments problem
Late payments remain a significant challenge for small businesses across Europe. According to the EU Payment Observatory, addressing the issue could unlock more than EUR 100 billion in additional cash flow annually, a factor the observatory links to the 65% of affected companies that already struggle to access external finance. The UK faces a comparable challenge, with late payments estimated to cost the economy GBP 11 billion a year and contributing to 38 business closures daily, a situation that prompted the UK government to introduce its first late payments legislation in more than 25 years in March 2026.
Aria's platform is designed to bridge the gap between suppliers seeking faster payment and buyers preferring longer payment terms, embedding invoice financing directly within ERP systems, marketplaces, and vertical software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms. Under the model, Aria purchases invoices outright rather than lending against them, meaning suppliers receive payment without taking on debt, while buyers retain their usual payment terms of around 60 days. A single API handles identity checks, credit assessments, collections, insurance, and payments, adapted to local regulatory requirements, currencies, and payment methods across different European markets.
Company and investor commentary
A company official at Aria said the funding is intended to extend the company's model to more businesses, describing late payment chasing as a significant time cost for business owners. A company official at 115K described late payments as a significant and underserved problem for European SMEs, citing Aria's unit economics and operational track record as factors supporting the investment. A company official at Nomura said the firm's decision to support Aria's securitisation fund reflected the company's credit performance and operational discipline as it scales across Europe.
