Iwoca, one of the fastest growing SME lending platforms in Europe, today announced a Series B financing round of 20 million dollars in capital. The round was led by Acton Capital Partners, the German venture capital firm, and CommerzVentures, the corporate capital subsidiary of Commerzbank. Redline Capital and other previous investors also participated.
The investment of Series B will be used to promote the rapid expansion of the British operations of Iwoca, as well as to expand its presence in Europe and accelerate the continuous development of its technology platform for business loans- Lourosenfeld payday loans oakland ca.
Christoph Rieche co-founder and CEO of Iwoca said
We aim to offer a flexible financing option for each of the 20 million small businesses in Europe. The investment of Acton, CommerzVentures and previous investors is a vote of confidence in Iwoca and a sign of interest, not only from financial investors but also from leading banks, fintech lenders and alternative financing. This step will be crucial to increase access to credit and support growth among European SMEs. “
Iwoca has achieved more than 250% growth in the granting of loans in the twelve months prior to June 2015, demonstrating that alternative entities represent a key driver for economic growth as traditional banks have struggled to cover the deficit of financing. The alternative financing market in the United Kingdom is expected to jump to 7,000 million dollars in 2015 from 2,500 million dollars in 2014.
Iwoca already operates in four European markets: the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland and Spain, and this investment will allow the company to grant an additional 150 million dollars in loans to both new and existing clients, supporting the growth of thousands of SMEs across Europe.
As part of the investment, Frank Seehaus, Acton’s managing partner, will join the board as a non-executive director. Seehaus said: “We are impressed by the Iwoca technology platform, which has the power to turn the SME financing market around, with its strong execution capacity and long reach in Europe, Iwoca will become the European market leader. financial.”
Patrick Meisberger, Managing Director at CommerzVentures, said, “Digital innovation is transforming the banking landscape, and we respond to these changes by investing in companies that offer visionary solutions.”
“Iwoca’s cutting-edge technology provides a scalable way to understand and lend to small businesses, and is, therefore, a very attractive business model, and with its impressive track record, we are convinced that the company is set to show extraordinary growth.” , he added.
Alastair Cookson, the partner of Redline Capital, said: “Since our initial investment, Iwoca has acted firmly and successfully expanding in Europe, we are very happy to be joined by Acton and CommerzVentures and we believe that Iwoca’s differentiated technology will allow the company to take advantage of your important opportunity in this market. “
Iwoca has developed its own risk model that evaluates companies based on performance data obtained in real time from integrations with large banks, online platforms such as Amazon, eBay, PayPal, and Sage Pay and a range of other sources, including financial reports from the company and personal and company credit reports. The technology that Iwoca has developed allows the company to evaluate and approve lines of credit of up to $ 150,000 in a matter of hours (up to 50,000 euros in Spain).
Iwoca is transforming small business loans, offering flexible lines of credit for the millions of SMEs that are neglected by banks. Its technology-driven risk platform relies on thousands of data to make faster and fairer credit decisions, allowing Iwoca to grant up to $ 150,000 to a small business in a matter of hours. With more than 7,500 transactions since its launch in 2012, Iwoca is one of the fastest growing financial companies in Europe. Iwoca operates in the United Kingdom, Germany, Spai, and Poland. Iwoca is a founding member of Innovate Finance, the world’s leading agency in the FinTech industry.
Acton Capital Partners is a capital investor in companies focused
the Internet and mobile technology. Acton’s investment focus is on B2C and B2SmallB companies focused on e-commerce models, online markets, electronic services and digital media. The Munich-based association invests around the world, with a strong emphasis on Europe. The financing comes from international private and institutional investors. Past and present investments include Iberlibro, Elitepartner, Etsy, HolidayCheck, MyOptique, mytheresa.com, OnVista, Windeln.de, and zooplus.
CommerzVentures GmbH was established by Commerzbank AG as a corporate venture capital fund specializing in investments in financial technology and financial services (“FinTech”). The fund is wholly owned by Commerzbank AG. All companies in the CommerzVentures portfolio have scalable and attractive business models, which have already proven to be marketable and need investments to support further growth. The regional investment approach of CommerzVentures is in Europe, Israel and the US, which is why global trends are considered. The fund, which is domiciled in Frankfurt / Main, started its commercial operations on October 1, 2014.
Redline Capital Management supports technology and science companies in Europe, North America and Israel with venture capital and growth capital. The funds of Redline come from the entrepreneur and investor Vladimir Evtushenkov, the majority shareholder and main founder of JSFC Sistema, a company listed on the LSE that started as a technology investor more than 20 years ago. The fund invests between 5 million dollars and 35 million dollars per investment, with the ability to increase investment. The current portfolio of Redline Capital includes investments in ironSource, Iwoca, SI-BONE and Touch Surgery.
