UK-based challenger bank OakNorth has secured a further £90m from GIC in exchange for just under 10 per cent of the company.
This investment comes hot off the heels of its previous investment, which it closed last month on £154m. The round saw contributions from investors including The Clermont Group, Toscafund and Coltrane, with the group picking up a 16 per cent stake in OakNorth. The combined total of equity raised of £244m, makes the deal the largest in UK FinTech so far.
The previous line of equity helped the company to launch its ACORN product. The solution collects data about SMEs from around the world on a host of parameters, which is then analysed by machine learning algorithms to make credit decisions.
Launched in 2015 OakNorth is a cloud-based bank which offers flexible access to debt financing from £500,000 to £20m for UK SMEs. The bank lends up to £25m to UK businesses and has grown its loan book to more than £900m.
The capital injection will allow the company to boost its global presence, with a focus on the US, European and Asian markets.
Rishi Khosla, CEO and co-founder of OakNorth, commented: “Given the recent £154m raise, there wasn’t an immediate need to take in additional capital. However, when we became aware that GIC was interested in investing, there was a collective view that it would be hugely beneficial to the company if they did, so Indiabulls agreed to sell just under 10 percent of their stake.”
Total capital raised by OakNorth has now reached around £310m. In 2015 the company secured a £66m Series A round.
Of the global WealthTech sector funding in 2016, personal finance companies saw the biggest chunk of funding, with it receiving almost half of the total capital. The second biggest sub-sector was online banking, with it seeing $667m deployed, which represents just over half of the investments.
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