Microbric
Microbric develops, manufactures and sells educational robotics, helping educators teach STEAM through exciting and engaging hardware paired with intuitive software.
Need
Microbric secured an export contract with a large public school district in the US and needed external finance to cover the cost of production associated with the large order.
Solution
Our A$125,000 Small Business Loan enabled Microbric to fulfil its order and has since generated more interest and enquiries with its product.
Microbric provides school students with hands-on experience in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, and applied mathematics). The company’s palm-sized robot, Edison, is a highly affordable way to introduce electronics, programming and robotics in a fun and imaginative way in the classroom.
After launching Edison through a Kickstarter campaign, Brenton and partner Adriana O’Brien began exporting immediately to international customers. But two large orders from the US’ second-largest school district, meant Brenton and Adriana had to ensure that they had enough inventory to meet demand – creating working capital issues.
Unable to secure an overdraft from their bank, they approached Export Finance Australia for support.
“We had to order so much inventory to meet demand – and this resulted in cash flow issues,” said Adriana. “We thought: How are we going to manage this? That’s when we got in touch with Export Finance Australia.”
Andrew made a point of understanding our business. He also took a very personal, case-management style approach to working with us, which we valued.
Adriana O’Brien
COO and Education Specialist, Microbric
A personal and helpful approach
Adriana and Brenton met with Andrew Perkins, Business Development Director, Export Finance Australia. They were delighted at how helpful he was.
“Andrew made a point of understanding our business,” said Adriana. “This meant he knew the best way to help us. He also took a very personal, case-management style approach to working with us, which we valued.”
Adriana was particularly impressed at how easy and straightforward the loan application process was. She said that Andrew was available throughout the whole process for help and support.
“Andrew was very insightful and honest,” said Adriana. “It was a very quick turnaround from putting in the paperwork to receiving the funds.”
We provided Microbric with a A$128,000 Small Business Export Loan. Without this support, Microbric would not have been able to fulfil the large US orders, which would have impacted its ability to grow the business.
“We recently approached Andrew again to explore other funding options,” Brenton said. “We’re very confident about the market and the products we’ve developed. Export Finance Australia are going to be a very big help with our future growth.”