Butn

Cash at the click of a button

Butn offers lending to Australian businesses to help them grow through challenging times, take advantage of new opportunities, or access new markets.

It has been listed on the ASX since 2001 and has experienced tremendous growth in recent years, lending out $214m in the first half of 2023 and increasing revenue by 115% compared to a year earlier.

“Our North Star is to help small to medium businesses be able to grow,” said Ash Goldman, Head of Partnership and Revenue. “Customers often don’t have the luxury of time to plan weeks or months ahead to get funding, and we're able to facilitate funding in a quick, immediate and automated fashion.”

But, added Mark Newstead, Butn’s Chief Operating Officer, it is equally important that the cash rolls back in quickly when it’s due: “We want to get that money back from our clients, quickly and efficiently, so we can lend it back out. We do that either via direct transfer or direct bank payment.”

Keeping on top of overheads

Technology is important to Butn’s model of operating as efficiently as possible in order to keep staffing costs down. Lower overheads ultimately mean more cash for its customers.

“When looking for a direct bank payments partner, we needed somebody who could work with our technology platform,” said Mark. “They needed the right APIs and technology integrations to facilitate automation and ease of use for us and our customers.”

Butn decided to go with GoCardless once they saw how easily it would plug into their existing technology stack.

“We immediately saw that GoCardless could solve that piece of the puzzle for us in terms of collecting money from our customers with minimal fuss,” said Mark.

High growth, low costs

The majority of Butn customers make repayments using GoCardless. As soon as those payments come in, they’re automatically reconciled, which unlocks important business benefits.

“We use GoCardless for more than 90% of collections,” said Mark. “It integrates seamlessly with our technology platform, saving the admin team from having to reconcile transaction by transaction.”

GoCardless also smooths Butn’s cashflow so it has more money to hand for customers.

“For us to fund our customers we need to be able to have a solution that brings money back into the business in a timely manner,” said Ash. “So working with GoCardless leaves us confident that the money is coming out and going in, just the same way, which allows us to fund operations on a day-to-day basis.”

Butn also enjoys the support of a dedicated Customer Success Manager, which further adds to their confidence in their payments function. 

“Having a dedicated customer support contact at GoCardless is a great benefit,” said Ash. “We know that if we need help, there's always somebody on the other end of the line. Working with GoCardless allows us to save time and gives us the comfort and certainty that our payment processes will keep running exactly as we expect them to.”

The next payments revolution

Butn retains much of its start-up nature and the team is excited about the prospects of partnering with GoCardless on new payment innovations, particularly around PayTo, a new payment standard that settles funds instantly.

“We love working with GoCardless and are very excited to work with them in implementing PayTo technology,” said Mark.

“We're excited for the efficiencies it will hopefully deliver, allowing us to get money to clients within minutes or seconds and be able to collect repayments immediately. We're on the cusp of the next payments revolution and I think it’s a giant step for payment tech in Australia that's going to change the game for GoCardless and ourselves.”