Augmentum pours £7.5m into challenger business lender iwoca

Financial technology venture capital investor Augmentum Fintech announced an investment of £7.5m in challenger small-to-medium enterprise lender iwoca on Thursday.

The London-listed firm said iwoca, founded in 2011, used technology to “break down the barriers” obstructing access to finance for Europe’s 20 million small businesses.

It explained that the fintech firm had funded more than 25,000 small and medium enterprises across the UK, Germany and Poland.

The new equity would allow iwoca to fund balance sheet expansion, and accelerate growth.

“Whilst there are many companies attempting to address SME lending, few have a credit product as advanced as iwoca,” said Augmentum Fintech chief executive officer Tim Levene.

“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.”