Merchant Money secures £115m funding line from Quilam Capital and Barclays

By Bridging Loan Directory 8th February 2023

Merchant Money, the UK-wide business lender, has announced £115m of additional funding from Barclays Bank PLC and new partner Quilam Capital

The funding will be used by Merchant Money to grow its lending books across its secured and unsecured product offerings, and adds to its existing suite of senior funding lines.

Merchant Money has been providing secured and unsecured business loans to SMEs on a UK-wide basis since 2013.

The business, which secured British Business Bank accreditation for CBILS & RLS lending respectively, added bridging and secured loans to its offering in 2020, an area in which it has achieved good success to date.

Challenging market conditions have seen a continued retrenchment of traditional high street lenders and alternative funders in the SME lending space, a market in which Merchant Money is now well positioned to grow.

Jonathan Stern, Co-Founder and Chief Financial Officer of Merchant Money, commented:

“We are extremely proud to have secured such significant funding lines from two prestigious partners in difficult market conditions.

The funding package consists of a combination of senior and junior capital and allows for an even more compelling product offering.

We have already funded our first deals using this capacity and the market reaction to our improved products has been extremely positive”.

Matt Glew, Director at Quilam Capital stated:

“We are very happy to be supporting Merchant Money into what we expect to be a very exciting next stage of its journey.

Despite the current headwinds, there remains significant market opportunity in the SME space which the business is now in a prime position to fully capitalise on.

We have been very impressed by the ambitions of the management team and are looking forward to seeing our capital deployed in order to help achieve their goals.”

Sean White, MD of Securitised Products at Barclays, commented:

“Our strategy in the Corporate and Investment Bank is grounded in delivery for clients and we are delighted to be supporting Merchant Money with a new senior warehouse facility which will assist in funding the business’s growth plans in the UK SME sector.”

Behind the scenes, Merchant Money has been working hard to ensure the business is in the best shape possible to deploy this additional capital.

This has involved the recruitment of fifteen additional members of staff across a broad range of functions, introducing open banking and launching a new online broker portal.

Luke Jooste, CEO of Merchant Money commented:

“Our goal remains to continue to support the UK SME sector through what is likely to be a tough trading environment during 2023.

Alongside our supportive founding shareholders, this new funding will fuel the next phase in Merchant Money’s growth aspirations.

We are incredibly excited to be partnering with Quilam who bring with them a wealth of knowledge and expertise in the UK specialist lending space”.