Amsterdam Fintech Duqu Raises $1.7M to Fix Late B2B Payments

Jan de Vries · 2026-09-24

### The Problem: Late Invoices Are Killing Cash Flow Nearly half of all B2B invoices in Western Europe are paid late. That's 47% of money businesses have already earned, just sitting there while bills pile up. For small companies, waiting weeks to get paid can mean the difference between making payroll and missing it. Duqu, a fintech startup out of Amsterdam, is tackling this head-on. The company just raised €1.5 million (about $1.7 million) in a pre-seed round led by Curiosity VC and No Such Ventures. Their goal? To unlock cash trapped in unpaid invoices—without the usual headaches of traditional factoring. ### How Duqu Works: Advances, Not Sales Here's the simple version: you issue an invoice, Duqu advances you the money within 24 hours (often within an hour). You don't sell the invoice. You keep control of your customer relationship. And you only pay a fee when you actually use the service. Unlike factoring, there's no minimum or maximum amount. That means even tiny invoices can get funded. "Businesses can arrange almost everything instantly today, yet after completing the work they can still wait weeks to get paid," says co-founder Maas de Goede. "Growth cannot wait for an invoice to be paid." ### The Secret Sauce: AI That Assesses Credit in Seconds What makes Duqu different is its proprietary AI underwriting engine. It automates about 95% of the credit assessment process—something traditional lenders still do manually. That's why they can profitably handle small credit applications that banks often ignore. "Small applications are relatively expensive for traditional lenders to assess and process," says Herman Kienhuis of Curiosity. "Duqu has built a fully AI-driven credit assessment and processing stack. As a result, businesses with smaller credit needs can be better served." The technology isn't just for Duqu's own platform. They offer it as a white-label solution to banks, lenders, and leasing companies. So even traditional players can use Duqu's engine to automate their own credit decisions. ### Why Investors Are Betting on Duqu Thijn van Helvoirt of No Such Ventures points out that credit assessment is still labor-intensive for many providers. "Processing more applications often means hiring more people," he says. "Duqu automates a large part of that process while allowing lenders to retain their own credit policies." That modular approach means the same tech could be applied to leasing, mortgages, and buy now, pay later. It's a much bigger market than just invoice advances. ### Traction So Far: Users and Volume Duqu launched in October 2025 (founded by de Goede, Victor Brouwer, and Diederik Nassenstein). Since then, the platform has attracted nearly 1,500 users. They've processed €4.6 million (about $5.2 million) in applications, with more than €1.2 million ($1.4 million) actually advanced. Those numbers are modest, but the company is young. The fresh capital will help them grow both sides of the business: the direct platform for businesses and the white-label tech for lenders. ### What This Means for Your Business If you run a small or medium-sized business, you know the pain of waiting for payments. Duqu's approach could offer a lifeline—especially if you don't want to sell your invoices or deal with minimums. And because it's AI-driven, approval is fast and doesn't require a ton of paperwork. Of course, it's not free. You'll pay a fee when you use an advance. But for many, that's a small price for keeping cash flowing. As de Goede puts it, "Growth cannot wait for an invoice to be paid."