Business lender Iwoca gets a helping hand with £7.5m from London fund Augmentum Fintech
Small business lending challenger Iwoca is planning to close its next funding round within weeks, as the first stage of investment is revealed.
London-listed fund Augmentum Fintech has plugged £7.5m into the round, which Morning Wire understands to be part of a much larger series D raise to be announced in early February.
A representative for Iwoca declined to confirm the final amount, but said the upcoming round would be "much more significant" than Iwoca's previous raises.
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The fintech firm, which offers credit facilities to small businesses across the UK, has raised just under £50m in equity funding to date. Its existing investors include Etsy-backer Acton Capital Partners, the venture arm of Commerzbank, and Prime Ventures among others.
Launched in 2012, Iwoca now employs a team of 70 staff at its headquarters in central London. It has funded more than 25,000 small and medium-sized businesses (also known as SMEs) across the UK, Germany and Poland.
The news comes after Augmentum also closed an investment into probate startup Farewill earlier this week, injecting £4m into a £7.5m round alongside the venture arms of Daily Mail-owner DMGT and M&C Saatchi.
Morning Wire understands that today's funding from Augmentum is the fintech fund's largest one-off investment since it went public in March last year.
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Chief executive Tim Levene said of the investment: "Whilst there are many companies attempting to address SME lending, few have a credit product as advanced as Iwoca.
"We believe their industry-leading analytics and technology set them apart from other lenders and give them a competitive advantage others will find hard to replicate. We are confident that Iwoca will emerge as one of the winners in the SME space."