Acorn OakNorth Holdings, a London, UK-based bank focused on the SME lending market, secured $100m in funding.
The $100m represented 4.3% of the company.
Backers included:
– EDBI of Singapore,
– NIBC Bank,
– Clermont Group,
– GIC, and
– Coltrane Asset Management.
Since its inception, Acorn OakNorth Holdings has secured $576m ($455m primary) from several investors, including: NIBC, EDBI of Singapore, GIC, Toscafund, Coltrane, Clermont Group, and Indiabulls.
The capital will be used to accelerate the growth of ACORN machine and enable the company to continue scaling its lending efforts in the UK.
Launched in September 2015 by Founded by Rishi Khosla and Joel Perlman, OakNorth is a UK bank that provides fast, flexible and accessible debt finance (from £500k to £40m) to businesses and established property developers / investors.
Clients include nurseries, hotels, care homes, private equity firms, bars, restaurants, tech companies, security businesses, property developers / investors, and professional services companies. The list includes renowned high street brands, such as: LEON, Brasserie Blanc and Z Hotels, as well as well-known property developers such as: Regal London, Galliard and Frogmore.
In addition to business lending, the company also offers a range of FSCS-protected savings accounts for individuals and businesses. These include fixed-term, easy-access, notice and cash ISA accounts, with a range of terms to suit the different needs.
Authorized by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority, OakNorth has loan book of £1.7bn and raised deposits from c.20,000 savers.
The company also operates ACORN machine, a cloud based fintech platform that leverages machine learning and technology to allow banks penetrate the SME lending market by automating and accelerating data-driven decision making processes across the loan lifecycle. It uses technology to apply the credit analysis methodology used for large corporate loans in a more efficient and less manual way and applies a private equity approach to portfolio monitoring.
It has offices in London, New York, Singapore where it employs almost 100 people and will have over $5bn of assets under service on its platform by year end.
FinSMEs
06/09/2019