Iwoca, a British small business lending fintech, has secured a total of £150m in new equity and debt capital. The capital was raised in a Series D funding round led by Augmentum Fintech, the fintech venture capital investor. Other existing investors such as NIBC Bank and Prime Ventures also participated. This round’s collection brings the total funds raised to £350 million.
The fund raised will be used by iwoca to support small businesses across its markets in the UK, Germany and Poland.
Christoph Rieche, co-founder and CEO of iwoca, says: “iwoca continues to grow rapidly while bank lending to small companies has dwindled. This fundraise enables us to empower many more small businesses and we are excited that we could win Augmentum Fintech to join our next phase of growth.”
He also added that the company is aiming to fund around 100,000 small businesses in the next five years.
Tim Levene, CEO of Augmentum Fintech says: “As an SME lender, iwoca is unique for its scale in both the UK and Germany. The factors that underpin iwoca’s success are difficult to achieve in combination. We are confident that iwoca will emerge as one of the few winners in the SME non-bank lending space.”
Last year, iwoca connected its platform to three of the UK’s banks, Barclays, HSBC and Lloyds, through Open Banking, allowing businesses to provide information about their accounts in seconds to support lending applications.
Founded in 2011, iwoca provides loans of up to £250,000 to small and micro businesses via its website and through its lending API and Open Banking, using digital solutions to slash the time and paperwork required to approve funds. Since its launch, iwoca has lent more than £600 million, with 70% of its lending decisions automated.