iwoca, one of Europe’s largest lenders focused on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), has secured a fresh debt funding package of £200m from financial giants Citi and Waterfall Asset Management.
The funding comes as iwoca aims to expand its support for medium-sized businesses, doubling its maximum loan offering to £1m, according to FF News.
The recent £200m debt financing round is a significant addition to iwoca’s previous funding activities.
Over the last two years, the FinTech lender has raised a substantial £740m in debt financing from key partners, including Citi, Barclays, Värde Partners, Pollen Street Capital, and Insight Investment. Since its inception in 2012, iwoca’s cumulative funding has now reached nearly £1.5bn.
Founded with a mission to make business financing accessible for SMEs, iwoca offers a range of lending products tailored to meet the varied financial needs of smaller and medium-sized businesses across the UK and Europe.
The company has now raised the maximum loan limit to £1m to address rising demand from medium-sized enterprises seeking larger financing solutions.
With this new influx of funds, iwoca plans to increase its lending capacity and bolster its presence within the UK’s SME sector.
The company recently published data from its SME Expert Index indicating that demand for loans over £100,000 is on the rise, with nearly one-third of brokers expecting this segment to drive the most applications in the coming six months.
Additional milestones underscore iwoca’s momentum in the UK FinTech sector. In 2023, it was recognised among the top 10 UK FinTech performers, alongside well-known names like Monzo, Starling, and Revolut.
iwoca reported £143m in revenue that year and achieved net profitability in Q4 2022, a position it has maintained since. This year’s growth is set to outpace previous records, with a projected annualised revenue rate of £251m by Q3 2024, representing a 62% year-on-year increase.
Further, iwoca announced that 2024 has already marked a record for its lending activities, with £730m distributed across 35,000 loans by October. This volume signifies increases of 76% and 82% in loan value and count, respectively, year-on-year.
iwoca CEO and co-founder Christoph Rieche commented on the company’s mission and ongoing expansion, stating, “Our vision is to become ever more relevant to more businesses. Medium-sized businesses tell us that – just like smaller businesses – they are finding it difficult to access working capital finance. Therefore we have stepped up our offering to also meet their needs with £1 million loans.”
Rieche also expressed satisfaction with iwoca’s partnership with Citi, adding, “We’re very happy to expand our cooperation with Citi and look forward to being able to finance many more SMEs in the UK with their support. Like so many SMEs, it’s been a rollercoaster over the last decade. The iwoca team has stuck together to ride through the ups and downs and we’re humbled to have now grown to a size where we make a material impact on thousands of SMEs and their communities every month.”
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