Following a recent capital funding round, listed Australian payments and lending business, QuickFee Limited (ASX: QFE) plans to quickly grow its footprint in the United States as professional services firms modernize their payment systems and move away from slow paper check processing.

This growth is also being replicated in Australia, with QuickFee now servicing a quarter of the $400 million accounting and legal market – equivalent to approximately 40 per cent of the ‘fee funding’ market.

Non-Executive Chair of QuickFee, Dale Smorgon said that while QuickFee’s historical growth had been fueled by professional services firms modernizing payments, it was experiencing increased demand as it helped businesses and their customers weather the tighter economic climate by getting paid faster and freeing up working capital.

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He said U.S. expansion plans would be supported by the successful capital raise of $3.75 million and a $500,000 share purchase plan announced late last week, that will enable the business to fund lending growth in the U.S. and Australia.

“The professional services market in the U.S. presents a massive opportunity, and with our recent capital raise, we’re well-positioned to empower firms to embrace digital payments and achieve faster payments and improved cash flow,” Smorgon said.

“We are already experiencing significant growth in the U.S., with our Pay Over Time financing revenue at the end of Q3 up 54 per cent year-on-year and our Pay Now revenue (through ACH and Cards payments) up 15 per cent.

“But we are just scratching the surface of opportunity, with the U.S. professional services market still in its infancy when it comes to adoption of digital payments. While we are performing well, we currently have less than 10 per cent of the addressable market when it comes to accounting firms and even less of the wider professional services sector.”

QuickFee – which provides payment solutions to 1,250 firms globally and has funded over half a billion in payment plans – offers a unique portfolio of payments products specifically designed for professional services firms.

Currently QuickFee is helping 757 of the 6,155 accounting firms in the U.S. transform their antiquated approach to payments. QuickFee captures approximately 7 per cent of the total addressable $102 billion accounting services market revenue and an even smaller share of the $142 billion legal services market.

Mr Smorgon said there was plenty of upside for the U.S. market with checks still being the most common way to pay invoices from accounting, legal and other professional services firms.

The Accounting Industry Report shows more than half of U.S. accounting firms’ invoices are paid by check with 58 per cent of firms saying check payment requires significant manual resourcing to process. QuickFee’s payment platform enables both Pay Now and Pay Over Time options, and helps firms accelerate their digital transformation.

QuickFee’s Pay Over Time product enables professional services firms to get paid immediately, while their customers have the option to pay by installments.

In the U.S., the company also offers Pay Now (ACH and Card) and Connect – an integrated payments platform – that helps professional services firms streamline and automate the entire bill-to-cashflow workflow, cutting administration costs and speeding up payments.

In Australia, the company’s Pay Over Time revenues are up 50 per cent in the third quarter.

“While more mature than their US counterparts when it comes to payments, the Australian professional services sector still processes a significant amount of check payments and has some way to go in digitizing payments,” Smorgon said.

Accounting