Portuguese challenger bank Banco BNI Europa has formed a strategic partnership with Funding Circle to support German SMBs. ?
The partnership will supply ?50m funding to finance small business loans in Germany, supporting around 600 companies and the creation of approximately 1,500 jobs.
Funding Circle is an online lending platform that helps to connect more than 70,000 retail investors and institutional investors with SMBs looking to expand.
Banco BNI Europa executive chairman Pedro Pinto Coelho said, ?An investment in German SME the staple of European economic stability is a highly attractive asset class. And Funding Circle is the professional partner that convinced us with their risk assessment and credit analysis.
?A perfect match: both Banco BNI Europa and Funding Circle have proven that they are able to stimulate local economies through technological and financial innovation.p>
Late last year, Funding Circle announced it moved past the ?100m loans funded on its platform in Germany, while its global loan volume moved past the $5bn mark.
Banco supplied a ?10m investment in to the Portugal-based P2P lending platform RAIZE, last year. The company raised the capital to support its SME lending capabilities, with it looking to deploy ?20m in micro loans by the end of the year.
The German FinTech sector saw $556.9m invested, of which, just under 40 per cent went to marketplace lending companies. The next biggest sector for funding was infrastructure and enterprise software, with it representing just under a quarter of total equity injections.
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