Online lender ThinCats has announced a new £300 million program with global asset manager Insight Investment to fund UK SMEs. The announcement was shared on a ThinCats blogpost that indicated they now have the potential to loan up to £600 million. ThinCats is a UK based peer to peer lender that provides access to credit for SMEs from £100,000 to £10 million
Damon Walford, Chief Development Officer at ThinCats, said they have responded to market demand to provide lending at a cost of capital that reflects “lower risk associated with established strong businesses and thereby offer a real alternative to bank funding.”
“By combining big data and technology, with dynamic credit and client servicing skills, we are simplifying traditional lending models. ThinCats enables SMEs to scale-up fast and achieve their growth ambitions with strong institutional funding support,” said Walford.
Shaheer Guirguis, Head of Secured Finance at Insight Investment, explained that their strategy is to seek compelling assets to provide clients with complexity premium above comparable corporate credit securities. Their partnership with ThinCats represents such an opportunity – specifically in SME lending.
“We have worked closely with the ThinCats investment team and been impressed by their focus and clear commitment to developing a resilient long-term lending platform for SMEs,” said Guirguis. “In an era in which banks are retrenching from certain lending markets due to regulatory considerations this is a concrete example of how institutional investors such as pension funds and insurance companies can step in to support SMEs and UK economic activity across the country”.