The British Business Bank has agreed an £100m increase to its existing ENABLE Guarantee transaction with leading fintech Oxbury Bank – a UK bank with a singular focus on farmers, food production and the rural economy.
The original £100m transaction, announced in November 2023, and which was the first to be fully pre-seeded, has “supported over £140m of finance for c.170 smaller businesses in the rural economy.”
This additional £100m will “extend that support, bringing the total transaction to £200m and with scope to increase further, subject to approvals.”
Oxbury has a strong track record “supporting farm businesses to improve their sustainability, and the extended ENABLE Guarantee will now include a specific enhanced incentive for Oxbury to promote more lending that meets certain sustainability criteria.”
Chester-based Oxbury launched as “a fully regulated bank in February 2021, offering a range of flexible lending and asset finance solutions tailored to the specific needs of farm businesses.”
Oxbury combines its own proprietary digital banking platform – Oxbury Earth – with a team of dedicated relationship managers “providing a wealth of agricultural experience and banking advice for clients.”
In less than three years Oxbury bank has “exceeded £750m in total committed and in-progress lending.”
In addition, it has “attracted £1bn in savings deposits from farm businesses and consumers wanting to support the rural economy and has reached break-even profitability.”
The bank has a target “to achieve a £1bn balance sheet in 2024.”
The Chester-based bank is backed “by institutional agriculture and AgTech investors, as well as other stakeholders in the sector.”
In total Oxbury has raised in excess “of £120m in investment since inception with further capital-raising initiatives planned to support ongoing lending growth.
James Farrar, Co-Founder and CEO at Oxbury Bank:
“Since first announcing the original ENABLE Guarantee last year, we have been thrilled at the pace at which we’ve been able to support around 170 SME farming businesses across the country, with over £140m of vital funding to help support and grow their businesses. By doubling the original transaction – and including the new sustainability incentive – Oxbury will be able to rapidly increase the impact of our lending across the farming and rural economy.”
Michael Strevens, Head of Structured Guarantees, Guarantee and Wholesale Solutions, British:
“We’re pleased to agree this transaction increase with Oxbury Bank. It has demonstrated its commitment to supporting smaller businesses in the agricultural sector and we hope the extra lending capacity facilitated by the ENABLE Guarantee will allow it to build on that in 2024 and beyond.”
As covered, the British Business Bank is “the UK government’s economic development bank.”
Established in November 2014, its mission is “to drive sustainable growth and prosperity across the UK and to enable the transition to a net zero economy, by improving access to finance for smaller businesses.”
Its remit is to design, deliver and “efficiently manage UK-wide smaller business access to finance programmes for the UK government.”
The British Business Bank’s core programs “support over £12.4bn1 of finance to more than 90,000 smaller businesses.”
As well as increasing the supply and diversity of finance for UK smaller businesses through its programs, the Bank works “to raise awareness of finance options available to smaller businesses.”
The British Business Bank Finance Hub “provides independent and impartial information to businesses about finance options, featuring short films, expert guides, checklists and articles from finance providers to help make their application a success.”
The British Business Bank is also “responsible for administering the government’s three Coronavirus loan schemes and its Future Fund, together responsible for delivering £80.4bn in finance to 1.67m businesses.”
These schemes are now “closed to new applications.”
