Tapping the $500 Billion Unpaid Invoice Opportunity
Why do some invoices never get paid?
Unpaid invoices aren’t just frustrating - they can threaten a business’s survival. Cash flow dries up, salaries are delayed, and growth stalls. Amanda Morrison, of iCollect, knows this all too well.
“A lot of business owners are ill-equipped when someone doesn’t pay an invoice.”
Some are new operators discovering that invoices don’t magically get paid. Others are experienced but lack the systems to recover small debts efficiently. Traditional debt collection agencies often reject amounts under $1,000 as uneconomical, or charge up to 40% commission - leaving businesses with little choice but to write off the money. That’s cash lost, and for some, it’s the difference between staying afloat and going under.
iCollect exists to fix that. It puts the power to recover unpaid invoices directly into business owners’ hands, with professional, automated tools and branded communications that get results - without high fees or wasted hours chasing debt.
What if you could recover debt without picking up the phone?
Businesses can now send pre-approved, automated debt collection agency branded letters, via email/text/post themselves, removing the friction of traditional debt collection. The results are impressive: in New Zealand, response rates reach up to 85%, with full or partial payment hitting 70% - well above industry averages.
“It’s like having mom and dad behind you telling someone off - but you’re still in control.”
By removing commission barriers and simplifying the process, iCollect makes debt recovery accessible, cost-effective, and even empowering. Businesses get paid, agencies earn on debts they would have ignored, and the platform smooths out a fragmented industry.
Sam Blackman, Ministry of Awesome Entrepreneur in Residence
How does iCollect change the game for agencies?
iCollect isn’t just for small businesses. Debt collection agencies are now clients too, using the platform to reach low-value debts that would otherwise be unprofitable.
“The agencies become our sales and marketing team. We don’t have to chase them—we just empower them.”
Drawing on her experience with Guardia Credit Services, Morrison rebuilt a self-service system that’s intuitive for clients and scalable across regions - but getting there required pressure-testing the model.
Support from Sam Blackman, Ministry of Awesome Entrepreneur in Residence, played a critical role in shaping that evolution. Rather than just advising, he challenged assumptions, helped sharpen the commercial model, and pushed the shift toward a white-label approach - turning agencies into customers and unlocking a scalable growth path.
That shift didn’t just refine the product - it changed the trajectory of the business, transforming iCollect from a useful tool into a platform that agencies could adopt, distribute, and grow with.
Could iCollect unite a fragmented global industry?
Globally, debt collection is disjointed, old-fashioned, and fragmented, tangled with compliance and outdated systems. iCollect aims to centralise inter-agency debt transfers, offering reporting, connections across borders, and potentially a dedicated payment gateway.
“We want to be the glue.” By connecting agencies worldwide, iCollect is targeting a $500 billion market in Europe, the US, and beyond - potentially much larger when including medical debt.
When cash flow stops being the problem
When businesses can reliably recover what they’re owed, everything changes. Cash flow stabilises. Time is freed up. Decisions aren’t made under pressure.
That’s the shift iCollect is driving - taking something traditionally manual, expensive, and often avoided, and turning it into a simple, systemised process that just works.
“iCollect started as a solution for small debts here in NZ, but now it has legs to fly globally - helping business owners who are at the end of their rope get paid, and transforming an industry that’s been stuck for decades.”
With early traction in New Zealand, Australia, US and Canada and a model built to scale through agency networks, iCollect is positioned to go after a massive global opportunity. But at its core, the mission stays the same - make it easier for businesses to get paid—so they can keep going.