EZBob Ltd, which trades as business e-lenders Everline and EZBob, has secured a three-year GBP25 million debt funding facility from Shawbrook Bank and Honeycomb Investment Trust (Pollen Street Capital Limited – Investment Manager).
This latest funding follows the close of the FinTech start-up’s Series C investment round in March, with a GBP20 million equity from Bank Leumi, and existing investor, Oaktree Capital Management LP.
Having already provided over GBP100 million and over 8,500 loans to small businesses in the UK, this new round of funding will allow EZBob Ltd to open up lending to more UK SMEs at more affordable rates. It is also further evidence of how FinTech companies are working with the traditional banking sector to better serve small businesses’ needs.
Tomer Guriel, CEO and co-founder of EZBob Ltd, says: “Securing senior debt facilities from two leading UK financial institutions (Shawbrook Bank and Pollen Street Capital, through its HoneyComb Investment Trust) allows us to tap into a lower cost of capital funding, which we can then pass onto our customers to help support even more of the UK’s small businesses. Receiving this financial backing is also testament to the unique technology powering our proprietary automated lending platform and will enable us to accelerate our growth plans.”
Michael Katramados, Shawbrook Bank, adds: “Shawbrook is a bank dedicated to financing UK SMEs. We have known EZBob Ltd. for quite a few years now and are pleased to once again assist a business that, like us, is keen to support small businesses in the UK.”
Lindsey McMurray, Honeycomb Investment Trust, adds: “We have known the team and the business for a number of years and are excited about the opportunity to support them in their next phase of growth. We have been impressed by both the team and their technology platforms and believe it puts them in a strong position to support UK SMEs, a sector that many lenders have retrenched from in recent years.”
The e-lender’s fully automated smart lending platform links directly to a business’ key data sources, such as cloud based accounting services, tax reports and bank statements, to make up-to-date and rapid lending decisions based on the business’ performance. The application process, risk and decision making and servicing are all fully automated, meaning funds of up to GBP120,000 can be in a business’ bank account within minutes.
