iwoca, a prominent FinTech company, has announced a significant new funding round, securing £270m in debt financing from major financial players Citi and Barclays.
This latest investment brings the total gross investment in iwoca to over £1bn since its inception in 2012.
The £270m raised includes £150m from Citibank and Insight Investment to bolster iwoca’s operations in Germany, and an additional £120m from Barclays and Värde to enhance its UK business. This strategic financial injection comes as iwoca continues to meet the growing demand for flexible financing solutions from small businesses.
Founded in 2012, iwoca has established itself as a key player in the SME lending space, primarily servicing small and medium-sized enterprises in the UK and Germany. The company offers innovative loan products, including its Flexi-Loan, which provides businesses with quick, flexible funding solutions that are typically processed within 24 hours.
The funds will be used to expand iwoca’s lending capacity and enhance its technology platform, allowing the company to keep pace with the high demand for its services. This technological advancement supports faster lending decisions and more adaptable loan terms, which are crucial for small business owners seeking alternatives to traditional high-street bank offerings.
Christoph Rieche, iwoca CEO and co-founder, emphasized the significance of the new capital. “This investment will enable us to keep up with the high demand from small businesses for our Flexi-Loan product. Business owners choose us over high-street banks because we make faster lending decisions, typically within 24 hours, and our loan terms are much more flexible.
“Both of these features are crucial for small business owners, and are only possible due to the technology we have developed over the last decade. With more than 130,000 small business loans processed, we have ample data to build market-leading risk models. This data-driven approach also allows us to lend to businesses that are outside the restrictions imposed by the high-street banks, especially when they don’t have multiple years of trading.”
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