Business e-lender hits £100m funding milestone

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EZBob Ltd trading as business e-lenders, Everline and ezbob, has today announced it has provided over £100m in funding to UK SMEs since launch in 2012.

The London-based FinTech start-up has almost doubled the amount it has lent to small businesses in the last 12 months and has now provided over 8,500 loans to help SMEs and sole traders access finance to achieve growth plans or simply supplement cash flow.

The increase in lending reflects a growing awareness and appreciation amongst SMEs of the alternative funding options available to them. A recent report by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance and UK innovation foundation Nesta showed that alternative finance platforms made up 12% of the UK market for small business lending. This marks a significant increase in the share of the market for business finance and reflects the changing funding landscape.

It also reflects the increased investment in FinTech ventures, with finance from the European Investment Fund (EIF) via its Competitiveness of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (COSME) and European Progress Microfinance Facility (EPMF) schemes helping Everline and ezbob to continue to fund British businesses.

“This is a huge milestone for us. We know first-hand that time and money are the biggest barriers to small business growth. Our aim when we started out was to re-write the traditional approach to underwriting business loans by fully automating the decision, risk and funding process so that small businesses can access vital finance.  As awareness for alternative finance providers continues to grow, we’re looking forward to being able to provide funding for even more of the country’s SMEs.”

 As well as receiving investment from the EIF, Oaktree Capital Management L.P. chose Everline and ezbob as its first business e-lending investment in Europe last year. The UK government supported Angel Co-Fund is also an investor.

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