MarketFinance secures £50m for CBILS from Israeli asset manager

Business lender MarketFinance has raised £50m in institutional investment to help support its coronavirus business interruption loan scheme (CBILS) activities.

Viola Credit – one of the largest asset managers in Israel – has provided the capital to fund more CBILS loans before the scheme comes to an end at the end of the September.

It comes as the business lending platform announced a new universal application for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which offers each applicant a variety of finance options, so that they can make the right choice for their company. These options will include business loans, invoice finance, and revolving credit facilities.

Read more: The P2P lenders offering CBILS finance with one month until application deadline

“Only 60,409 CBILS facilities have been approved since the pandemic started, versus 1.2m bounce back loan approvals,” said Anil Stocker, chief executive at MarketFinance.

“This shows there are many businesses who could still benefit from accessing CBILS finance before the scheme ends.

“For many who took a bounce back loan, there is now a short window where they can refinance onto a larger CBILS facility which could see them over to the new year.

“Vast swathes of the UK SME community haven’t applied or remain unaware of the CBILS initiative and that it concludes in a few weeks. By lining up this additional funding, we want to send a strong signal to the market that MarketFinance is here to help.”

Stocker added that the platform has been lending out approximately £10m per month since it started offering CBILS loans in May.

“CBILS has only accelerated the pace at which we’re investing in our various products,” he added.

“The MarketFinance vision is to make finance available, easy-to-use and fairly priced to viable small businesses that need it most.”

Read more: What CBILS deals are alternative lenders offering?