ThinCats has £800m “ready to deploy” for UK SMEs
BUSINESS lender ThinCats has £800m in capital which it is “ready to deploy” to fund UK-based small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
In its annual review of 2018, ThinCats revealed that two major funding programmes had allowed it to secure £700m for SME funding from four institutional investors. This included a £200m combined commitment from ESO Capital and Waterfall Asset Management, £300m from Insight Investment, and £200m from BAE Systems Pensions.
Combined with the peer-to-peer platform’s £100m of retail funding, this means that ThinCats began 2019 with £800m in capital, ready to invest in UK businesses.
“We are delighted to have secured £700m of institutional funding in little over a year,” said Ravi Anand, managing director of ThinCats.
“This level of funding validates our ambition to provide better funding solutions to UK SMEs and our investment in the processes and people to deliver that ambition. Looking forward into 2019 we will continue to diversify our pool of investors generally and to support new product launches.”
2018 was a historic year for the platform, as it lent a record £112m via 64 deals, with an average deal size of £1.75m. The largest deal was worth £10m, which was provided to fund the acquisition of Hydram, a leading supplier of sheet metal components.
“I’m delighted with the progress that ThinCats has made over the last 12 months in our mission to help more UK SMEs access the finance they need to grow,” said the platform’s chief executive John Mould.
“Despite an uncertain economic backdrop, undoubtedly made worse by the ongoing Brexit saga, the investments that we made in 2016 and 2017, and again in 2018, have transformed our ability to serve business advisers and their clients. This is reflected in the value of SME funding that we have provided with £112m in 2018, more than double the 2017 figure.
“I believe we are becoming an increasingly attractive funding option due to our flexible, bespoke approach, access to experienced credit and business development teams right across the UK, and the certainty of funding that comes from having almost £1bn of funding capital to deploy.”
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