Liberis, a UK-based fintech, announced on Wednesday it secured £32 million through its latest investment round as it prepares to expand its services in both the U.S. and Europe. This new investment comes less than two years after Liberis received £57.5 million in combined funding from British Business Investments, Paragon Bank, BCI Finance, and Blenheim Chalcot. This latest investment notably brings Liberis’ total debt and equity funding to over £150 million.
As previously reported, Liberis provides finance for small businesses. It funds from 2,500 to £300,000 to limited companies, partnerships, and sole traders. Liberis claims it has provided over 15,000 small businesses with more than £450 million in funding of which the majority through its innovative Funding-as-a-Service platform with integrated partners.
“We deliver finance solutions directly to small businesses, and provide a scalable, finance platform for partners to help them build more valuable relationships with their small business customers. Our technology is revolutionising the way businesses offer and access finance by being easy to access, understand and use.”
Liberis noted that in the past 18 months it has seen rapid global growth, with expansion into five new countries including the UK, US, Sweden, Czech Republic, Slovak, and Finland. The company also revealed that this new investment will support the business as it further expands its footprint in the United States and in two new European countries, as well as attracting the new employees with a 30 percent increase in headcount planned for the next year.
“The investment will also enable the company to scale globally at pace through its unique partnerships model to support the millions of small businesses who have difficulty in accessing the funding they need to thrive.”
Sharing his thoughts about the investment round, Rob Straathof, CEO of Liberis, stated:
“Small businesses are the lifeblood of the global economy, yet they continue to be turned away by banks and traditional lenders or faced with unhelpful repayment terms and complex processes. We are delighted with this investment from FTV Capital as it means we can continue to onboard new partners, expand our product range and grow our team in order to serve the 50 million small businesses across the US, Europe and the UK with much needed funding.”
Straathof added:
“2020 is set to be an exciting year for Liberis and this financial investment will help to accelerate our plans so we can support thousands more small businesses around the world with fast, flexible and fair funding.”