Funding Circle & Atom bank form £150m SME lending partnership

By Gloria Methri

Funding Circle and Atom bank have announced a lending partnership that will provide £150 million of new funding to small businesses. With £350 million already lent through the Funding Circle platform, this latest commitment brings Atom’s total lending with Funding Circle to £800 million.

Atom will harness Funding Circle’s technology and distribution platform to deploy new funding to at least 4,000 UK small businesses, continuing its support for UK SMEs. Funding Circle’s machine learning models will provide Atom with an efficient and cost-effective mechanism to deploy capital to the real economy.

Funding Circle’s Instant Decision Lending technology enables small businesses to apply for finance in an average of six minutes, with lending decisions in just nine seconds. This seamless functionality is helping Atom provide small businesses with fast and simple access to finance.

This lending partnership will support SMEs through Funding Circle’s Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS) product and existing loan product. Atom will lend through the platform alongside a wide range of investors, including banks, asset management companies, insurance companies, government-backed entities, individuals, and funds.

Lisa Jacobs, Europe Managing Director of Funding Circle, said, “We are excited that Atom bank has strengthened its commitment to supporting small businesses through our technology platform. Alongside a wide range of investors, it is great to see Funding Circle’s machine learning and distribution capabilities being leveraged as a key solution towards increasing the flow of funding to the real economy, powering the economic recovery.”

Edward Twiddy, Chief Customer Officer at Atom bank, said, “Ever since we started lending to UK SMEs in 2016, we have been committed to supporting business owners, most recently as a leading lender of broker-led secured loans via CBILS. We are excited to be partnering with Funding Circle, leveraging their market-leading tech to continue our support for British Businesses. By the turn of this year, we will have provided over £1 billion of lending to UK SMEs alongside what is already £3 billion of mortgage lending.”