MarketFinance secures £50mn to boost CBILS support for SMEs

By Megha Bhattacharya

UK-based FinTech business lender MarketFinance has secured an additional £50 million from Israeli asset manager Viola Credit in a bid to lend to UK SMEs under the HM Treasury and British Business Bank CBILS initiative. The company recently launched a unified application process for SMEs and is now able to offer a combination of business loans, invoice finance, and revolving credit facilities through this single application journey.

Anil Stocker, CEO at MarketFinance, commented, “Only 60,409 CBILS facilities have been approved since the pandemic started, versus 1.2m Bounce Back Loan approvals. This shows there are many businesses who could still benefit from accessing CBILS finance before the scheme ends. For many who took a Bounce Back Loan, there is now a short window where they can refinance onto a larger CBILS facility, which could see them over to the new year. Vast swathes of the UK SME community haven’t applied or remain unaware of the CBILS initiative and that it concludes in a few weeks. By lining up this additional funding, we want to send a strong signal to the market that MarketFinance is here to help”.

According to MarketFinance, it has improved its unified application process to allow faster decisions and access to the right funding for SME applicants. The process will allow SMEs to draw down a loan today and set them up to use invoice finance or a revolving credit facility for when their order book fills back up.

Anil Stocker added, “We make finance easier for business owners. Over the years, we’ve refined our platform, allowing integrations with banks, online accountancy packages, and credit bureaus to make lending a seamless process. This has saved time for owners and allowed them to focus more energy on the running of their business”.

MarketFinance is accredited to lend under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), providing term loans from £50,001 to £150,000 and revolving credit facilities from £50,001 to £5m to UK SMEs.