Funding Circle (LSE: FCH), which claims to be the UK’s largest small business lending platform, and Bayview Asset Management, an investment management firm headquartered in Coral Gables, Florida, announced a lending partnership that is “targeting the provision of £700m funding to small businesses over an 18 month period.”
This partnership will “see Bayview support thousands of UK SMEs by leveraging Funding Circle’s technology and distribution platform.” Funding Circle’s credit models — driven by a decade of technology and data investment — will “provide Bayview with a highly efficient and cost-effective mechanism to deploy capital to the real economy.”
Funding Circle’s instant decision lending (‘IDL’) technology “enables small businesses to apply for finance in an average of six minutes, with lending decisions in as little as nine seconds.”
This functionality is helping “provide small businesses with fast and simple access to finance, allowing them to grow, create jobs and power the economy.”
Bayview, through its managed funds, “joins a diverse group of lending investors using Funding Circle’s platform, including banks, asset management companies, insurance companies, government-backed entities, individuals and funds.”
Including this latest announcement, four of these lending investors have “committed up to £2.4bn of vital funding to support UK SMEs, and the UK economy.”
Lisa Jacobs, CEO at Funding Circle, said:
“Small businesses continue to face a wide range of opportunities and challenges; access to finance remains crucial to meeting these. We’re delighted that Bayview Asset Management is joining the wide range of investors using our technology and distribution platform, ensuring the UK’s entrepreneurs can continue to invest, grow, and support local jobs.”
Carlos Prevolis, Managing Director and head of loan investment business, Bayview Asset Management, said:
“We are excited to partner with Funding Circle to help small businesses achieve their goals. Funding Circle’s approach is a great match for Bayview’s deeply analytical approach to loan investments.”
Zhu Gong, European structured credit, Bayview Asset Management, said:
“Bayview has been supporting alternative finance providers in the U.S. and Europe to access efficient funding and provide innovative financing solutions to businesses and consumers. We look forward to working with Funding Circle to empower SMEs across the UK.”
As covered, Funding Circle is “a lending platform for small business borrowers.”
Established in the UK in 2010, and now the “leading” lending platform to SMEs, the Group also has “a material and growing presence in the US.” Globally, Funding Circle has “provided £14.5bn in loans to c.130,000 businesses.”
