B-North, the Manchester-based Fintech building an SME lending bank for the UK, has topped its £500,000 target on GrowthFunders.
As it stands today, B-North has raised £560,598 backed by 48 online investors as well as 27 professional investors. The Series A “bridge stub round” is offering common equity in the company.
The offering page states that B-North has raised seed capital in excess of £6.8 million and its Series A round has 93% of its £20 million target committed. The offering on GrowthFunders is said to provide additional cash for the end of Q2 2021 as the team finalizes its Series A round and secures its banking license.
B-North has previously raised capital on GrowthFunders and Crowdcube.
Once B-North receives its license, the Fintech expects to operate via a UK-wide network of ‘lending Pods’ to provide finance dynamically to regional SME businesses that are often poorly served by traditional lenders. Through this network, B-North aims to deliver loans to businesses 10x faster than the industry standard. The first of B-North’s Pods are expected to open in Manchester later this year. The firm is targeting the UK’s £150 billion SME lending market by establishing the first truly regional lending bank in 150 years.
Jonathan Thompson, co-founder and CEO of B-North, commented on the offering:
“We are delighted to continue to welcome investors to B-North at such an exciting stage in our journey. Our initial target of £500,000 to add to our £3 million bridge round will provide B-North with an extended cash runway to ensure that our activities can continue at pace – and allows investors to back our vision for the future of UK lending. We continue to make good progress on the banking licence process and the completion of our £20 million ‘Series A’ round ahead of the mobilisation stage which will see us start to provide much-needed funding into the underserved SME lending market.”
Have a crowdfunding offering you'd like to share? Submit an offering for consideration using our Submit a Tip form and we may share it on our site!