Member Article

FinTech lender secures £46m debt and equity double deal

London-based small business lender iwoca has closed a £21m Series C round and at the same time has raised a £25m secured debt facility.

The latest investment round in the alternative lender, which has now raised £38m in equity funding, was led by Prime Ventures with participation from Acton Capital Partners, CommerzVentures, Global Founders Capital and Redline Capital.

Meanwhile, the firm’s new debt facility was secured via a syndicate led by Shawbrook Bank and brings the lender’s total available debt facilities to £40m.

Utilising the new investment, iwoca plans to develop its technology and data platform, as well as scale its operations across the UK and Europe to make its flexible, revolving credit facilities available to more SMEs across the continent.

Christoph Rieche, Chief Executive Office of iwoca, said that the alternative lender has now supported over 7,000 small businesses in the last five years and that the new investment would give it ‘the firepower’ to achieve its aims.

He added: “We are very excited to welcome Prime Ventures to our world-class investor group and embark on our next phase of growth.

“Given that iwoca is both a technology company and a finance provider, we are very fortunate to have an investor base with experience that covers both areas.”

Managing Partner at Prime Ventures, Sake Bosch, joins iwoca’s board as non-executive director following the investment and he hailed the FinTech business’ ‘sophisticated approach to lending’ following today’s announcement.

He said: “Its technology platform and strong European reach is redefining small business finance. We invest in growing firms with the objective of making leaders out of them.

“iwoca has tremendous potential to overtake traditional banking models and scale up to become the European market leader.”

Iwoca, which has lent over £150m to SMEs since 2012, is part of the new generation of alternative lenders who are helping to plug the gap in small business funding caused by the reticent lending practices of the bigger banks.

Looking to promote your product/service to SME businesses in your region? Find out how Bdaily can help →