This Dutch Fintech Just Raised $1.6M to Kill the 47% Late Invoice Problem

Jan de Vries · 2026-09-24

Amsterdam-based fintech Duqu just closed a pre-Seed round of €1.5 million (about $1.6 million) from Curiosity VC and No Such Ventures. The company gives businesses immediate access to cash locked up in unpaid invoices. But here's the twist: Duqu isn't just another invoice financing platform. It's built an AI underwriting engine that automates 95% of credit assessments, and it's selling that tech as a white-label solution to banks, lenders, and leasing companies. ### Why unpaid invoices are a bigger problem than you think Nearly half (47%) of B2B invoices in Western Europe are overdue. That means money businesses have already earned can sit idle for weeks while expenses like payroll, inventory, marketing, or a new hire can't wait. "Businesses can arrange almost everything instantly today, yet after completing the work they can still wait weeks to get paid," said Duqu co-founder Maas de Goede. "That no longer matches the pace at which businesses operate. Growth cannot wait for an invoice to be paid." Founded in October 2025 by de Goede, Victor Brouwer, and Diederik Nassenstein, Duqu offers short-term advances without requiring businesses to sell their invoices. No minimum or maximum amounts. Businesses pay a fee only when they use an advance, and once approved, funds are transferred within 24 hours—often within an hour. Unlike factoring, businesses retain control of the customer relationship. That's a big deal for companies that don't want to hand over their client list just to get paid faster. ### The AI engine that makes small loans profitable Traditional lenders struggle with small credit applications because the cost to assess and process them eats up the profit. Duqu's fully AI-driven stack changes that math. "Small applications are relatively expensive for traditional lenders to assess and process," said Herman Kienhuis of Curiosity. "Duqu has built a fully AI-driven credit assessment and processing stack. As a result, businesses with smaller credit or working capital needs can be better served." Duqu has spent the past year and a half building its proprietary underwriting engine. It's modular, meaning lenders can plug it in as a white-label solution and automatically assess applications using their own credit policies. > "Credit assessment is still a labour-intensive process for many providers. As a result, processing more applications often means hiring more people. Duqu automates a large part of that process while allowing lenders to retain their own credit policies." — Thijn van Helvoirt, No Such Ventures Van Helvoirt points out that the same technology can be applied to leasing, mortgages, and buy now, pay later. So alongside its solution for businesses, Duqu is building tech that could reshape a much broader slice of the credit market. ### Traction and what's next The platform currently has almost 1,500 users and has processed €4.6 million (about $5 million) in applications since launch, with more than €1.2 million (roughly $1.3 million) advanced. Duqu plans to use the fresh capital to grow both sides of the business: the direct platform for businesses and the white-label offering for lenders. It's a two-pronged approach that could make Duqu a key player in the European fintech scene—especially as more companies look for ways to smooth out cash flow without giving up control of their invoices. For now, the startup is focused on solving a simple but painful problem: getting businesses paid faster so they can grow without waiting on slow-paying customers.