Partner Article
Online SME lender EZBob secures £20m Series C investment with Israeli backing
London-based online lending portal EzBob Ltd has closed a £20m Series C investment round that has draw significant backing from one of Israel’s largest banks.
The investment round saw significant backing from Leumi Partners, the investment banking arm of Israel-based Bank Leumi, as well as funds managed by American assessment management firm Oaktree Capital Management.
Bank Leumi have a history of recent FinTech investments and recently opened LeumiTech in London, a subsidiary of the bank offering support to entrepreneurs and startups.
The FinTech firm, which specialises in lending to SMEs, has already provided over £100 million funding and over 8,500 loans through its trading names EZBob and Everline, and hopes the new investment will allow it to expand even further.
Commenting on this new round of investment, Tomer Guriel, CEO and co-founder of EZBob Ltd., said: “Raising investment from a leading global bank in digitalisation and an active investor within tech is proof of our game-changing technology and unique approach to business lending.
“This latest investment will further accelerate our growth plans and enable us to continue to develop our proprietary business lending platform to address more of the UK’s business lending needs.
“Oaktree’s additional investment is an endorsement of the management team, the business’ scalability and the appetite for a fresh approach to business finance in the UK. We’ve already experienced significant growth in the last 12 months and the market opportunity remains huge.”
Prof. Danny Tsiddon, Chairman of Leumi Partners and Leumi Group Deputy Chief Executive Officer, added: “This is Leumi’s first major investment in FinTech outside of Israel. Business e-lending is rapidly growing around the world and is attracting global banks, who see its potential and allocate more and more resources towards it.
“It is only natural that a bank which specialises in Israeli high-tech and spearheads innovation has chosen to invest in this leading FinTech start-up.”
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