When Faisal Ali came to the UK from Pakistan at 19, he started working as a security guard to support himself. He had no network, no capital, and no business background - only determination and a strong work ethic.
Fast forward to today, Faisal leads AK9 Security & FM Solutions, a fast-growing business employing more than 700 people across the UK. Headquartered in Barking, East London, AK9 provides security, facilities management, and cleaning services to commercial, government, and residential clients nationwide.
The business is on track to reach £20.8 million in turnover this year, representing an impressive 64% year-on-year growth.
The Challenge
As AK9’s contracts expanded rapidly, Faisal faced the challenge that many high-growth service providers encounter: managing volatile cashflow.
Large corporate and public-sector clients often operate on extended payment terms, while AK9 must pay hundreds of staff weekly and cover equipment, operations, and compliance costs.
With new contracts frequently coming online - and others pausing or shifting - Faisal needed a flexible and dependable funding partner that could move at the pace of his business.
The Solution – Facility limit: £1.5 million
AK9 partnered with Kriya Invoice Finance in 2023 to help manage working capital and bridge payment gaps between invoices raised and funds received.
With Kriya’s support, Faisal could unlock cash tied up in invoices and redeploy it to pay staff, invest in new contracts, and grow sustainably.
Despite receiving multiple competing offers from other invoice finance providers, Faisal chose to renew with Kriya, citing exceptional customer service, ability to effectively handle his business’s volumes, and the partnership built over time.
The Impact
The partnership with Kriya has helped AK9:
- Bridge cashflow gaps caused by extended customer payment terms.
- Scale confidently into new contracts without worrying about liquidity.
- Maintain steady operations even when contract volumes fluctuate.
- Invest in staff training, technology, and new business lines.
- Sustain strong, double-digit annual growth.
Faisal’s story reflects the entrepreneurial resilience at the heart of the UK SME economy - a business owner who started on the front line and built a national operation through hard work and ambition.
About AK9 Security & FM Solutions
Founded in 2017, AK9 began as a small London-based security staffing company. It has since grown into a nationwide provider offering a comprehensive suite of services, including:
- Security solutions: manned guarding, access control, emergency response, CCTV monitoring, and door supervision.
- Facilities management: concierge, reception, and building operations.
- Cleaning services: commercial and residential contracts.
The company now employs more than 700 people across its divisions and operates several related business ventures - including ownership of three shopping centres around London.
Fast Facts
- Founder: Faisal Ali
- Industry: Security, Facilities Management & Cleaning
- Founded: 2017
- Employees: 700+
- Headquarters: Barking, East London
- Turnover (2025): £20.8 million (+64% YoY)
- Kriya Partnership: Since 2023
- Facility Limit: £1.5 million (renewed for 2025-2026)
Closing Note
AK9’s journey embodies what Kriya stands for: enabling entrepreneurs to grow faster, hire more people, and create impact - without being held back by slow payments.
From one man working security shifts to a multimillion-pound national group, Faisal’s story is a testament to what’s possible when ambition meets the right financial partner.
I want to express my gratitude to Kriya for their outstanding support since 2023. Special thanks to CEO Anil Stocker and the entire team for efficiently managing our cash flow. Kriya has been instrumental in our Financial operations, especially given the volume of work we handle. Their exceptional customer service has greatly impacted our business. Thank you for your dedication and support.
Faisal Ali
Founder & Managing Director
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AK9 Security & FM Solutions
“We expect our B2B revenues to double as a result of providing Kriya’s flexible payment terms to our trade and business buyers.”
Stuart Zissman, Head of Financial Services
Halfords is the UK’s leading provider of motoring and cycling services and products. Its customers shop across over 1,750 fixed and mobile locations including, Halfords stores and garages, as well as its website, halfords.com.
Today, around a quarter of Halfords turnover is business-to-business. They sell to organisations of all sizes including SME businesses, garages, and workshops, offering discounts on automotive parts and tools with their Trade Card, as well as directly to larger commercial and government customers that buy in bulk.
However, like many well-established enterprises, Halfords found its future growth was challenged by the legacy processes of its past. Find out how they’ve teamed up with Kriya to remove the friction from their B2B commerce.
Halford's challenges
“The exam question” says Halfords’ Head of Financial Services, Stuart Zissman, “was how do we make selling to business and trade buyers less labour-intensive?” Having already overseen a successful consumer finance proposition at Halfords, it was clear to Zissman that their B2B offering had potential to grow by introducing a simple and effective credit solution.
1. B2B buyers expect payments terms
“All successful B2B propositions have some sort of financial support” Zissman explains. Whether large or small, Halfords’ business buyers want to be invoiced on payment terms. This is especially beneficial for garages and workshops, which thrive on efficient working capital cycles, allowing them to source parts upfront and defer payment until they have received compensation for their services.
Halfords recognised the opportunity to enhance their offerings by providing scalable trade credit, which was previously untapped. As Zissman says, "offering payments completes the circle."
2. Manual, unscalable processes were holding back growth
Halfords' hands-on approach to B2B processes presented an opportunity for greater scalability and growth. Wholesale orders, managed via account managers, involved manual quotes and purchase orders, which added complexity.
“We’d like to say yes to every single customer that wants to order from us,” says Head of Trade Card, Chris Millan. However, processing these detailed orders for existing buyers took time, limiting the retailer's ability to proactively attract new business and expand their account base.
What Halfords sought was a way to make their B2B offering more accessible and achieve a better economy of scale.
“We work with sole traders, business customers and government entities. Kriya is the only supplier that could support all three.”
Chris Millan, Head of Trade Card
The search for a solution
Recognising the need for change, Halfords set out to find a way to modernise its B2B offering. With Kriya's 12-year track record and willingness to collaborate on a solution for their unique requirements struck a chord with Halfords.
A solution for all B2B buyers
Halfords has a diverse buyer base and needed B2B payment terms that could be offered to limited companies, government entities and sole traders.
Multichannel
With trade customers already purchasing online and in-store, Halfords needed a solution to offer payment terms holistically across their sales channels.
Risk expertise
With their focus on Motoring and Cycling, Halfords sought a partner with strong expertise in finance and payments, including robust credit and fraud detection capabilities, to help onboard their buyers.
“We are experts in motoring and cycling, and to ensure exceptional service for our customers, we decided to partner with Kriya, specialists in B2B payments and lending decisions.” Stuart Zissman, Head of Financial Services
The B2B vision
Halfords partnered with Kriya to transform their B2B offering. By integrating Kriya PayLater with their Trade Card, the retailer is combining trade discounts for B2B buyers with the ability to pay on account for online and in-store orders.
Adopting an eCommerce-first model has a number of advantages. Firstly, providing online buyers with highly-demanded payment terms expands the businesses they can sell to. Secondly, much of their offline business can be shifted to a self-serve, online checkout. Not only does this provide a smoother buyer experience, it also frees up the Halfords team to focus on the customers where their expertise has the most impact.
The near-infinite scalability of the Kriya solution means Halfords can not only improve their overall B2B customer proposition and experience, but they can also see financial benefits through the partnership too.
“Offering trade credit through payments makes it much slicker. It’s something buyers are familiar with from the consumer world.”Chris Millan, Head of Trade Card
Wholesale change
Halfords have kicked off their payments transformation with their wholesale offering.
Business buyers come to the Halfords wholesale team to place bulk orders and request custom details, such as branded bikes and accessories. Before Kriya, this fully offline sales channel required multiple teams and processes to transact each order. This process led to delays and hampered conversion, such as inventory becoming unavailable during the order, or customers purchasing elsewhere.
By streamlining the entire wholesale workflow into Kriya Merchant Portal, Halfords now have a single, automated flow for processing orders.
Wholesale buyers are first onboarded into Merchant Portal. This screens for credit and fraud risk, directly providing their sales team an instant spending limit decision for the buyer. Orders can then be placed on payment terms and invoices are automatically generated for the buyer. Additionally, Kriya assists with credit control by managing payment collections too.
“We needed a way forward that was less hands-on because the whole process was very, very manual.” Chris Millan, Head of Trade Card
How it works
The buyer places a wholesale order with Halfords
Halfords onboard the buyer into Kriya’s Merchant Portal
Payment terms selected and purchase complete. The buyer pays at the end of the following month.
Partnering for growth
Reflecting on the journey so far with Kriya, Zissman says “It’s that personal touch and relationship that makes the difference to the product we’re building together.” For Zissman, it's not simply outsourcing the expertise to a third party. “It’s more like we’re onboarding Kriya into Halfords and by extension they’ve become part of our team”.
There’s a busy roadmap ahead for Halfords and Kriya, with plans to bring the whole multichannel offering to market by the autumn of 2024.
We're very excited about this development,” says Millan. “Introducing payment terms to our Trade offering eliminates barriers that previously slowed us down and unlocks opportunities with a vast number of businesses we haven't historically engaged with.”
