Spokane Valley-based Universal Funding Corp., a financing company that lends money to small- and medium-sized businesses against their accounts receivable, says it plans to move next spring into larger quarters inside the River View Corporate Center.

Additionally, the company plans to hire about 10 employees in the next year to add to its total of 26 workers, says co-owner Monica Wozow. The added staff members will work in the areas of sales, administration, and customer service.

Universal Funding, which started here in 1998, plans to move by the end of March from its current headquarters at 1825 N. Hutchinson, where it has leased about 7,000 square feet since 2003. It has finalized a lease to take about 8,500 square feet on the second floor of the River View Corporate Center, the big five-story office building at 16201 E. Indiana developed by Worthy Enterprises LLC.

"We're expanding our business, and this move allows us to hire on new staff," Wozow says. "We're just in a growth phase, and we've really just used up all of our space."

The company typically has between 80 and 100 clients nationwide at any given time and is financing $14 million to $16 million a month. Universal Funding has sustained a 25 percent annual revenue growth rate since 2009, Wozow says.

The company advances money to businesses that are often seeking the capital for growth or to solve cash-flow problems, its website says. Its customers often are thriving based on revenues but have money tied up in accounts receivable and are finding banks' lines of credit capped, or that banks aren't interested in real estate collateral for loans, the website says.

"We're an independent financer to small- and medium-sized companies that do business-to-business sales," Wozow says. "It is a form of alternative financing that allows a company to capture access to capital that is otherwise tied up in their accounts receivable."

The other owners include Deron Nicholson and Wozow's parents, Henry and Pattie Wozow.