British Business Investments commits £20m to ThinCats to provide more debt finance to UK businesses

British Business Investments is making the new commitment under its Investment Programme, which supports the development of more diverse debt finance markets for small and medium sized businesses.

The commitment will provide ThinCats with additional capital to make term loans which will support the growth of businesses across the UK.

ThinCats now has capital in excess of £800 million for the funding of UK smaller businesses, across the full risk spectrum and in all regions and sectors, from £250,000 to £10 million. It aims to simplify the traditional bank-dominated commercial lending model by connecting smaller businesses directly with institutional and retail investors.

Damon Walford, chief development officer, ThinCats, said: “We are very excited to welcome British Business Investments to our group of funders. This is a significant step in our mission to level the playing field for British entrepreneurs whose growth ambitions are being held back by traditional lending models.”

Catherine Lewis La Torre, CEO, British Business Investments, said: “A big part of our role is to increase the overall supply and diversity of finance – both product and provider – on offer to UK smaller businesses thereby creating more choice and competition in the market. ThinCats’ innovative approach brings  a welcome additional model to the market and we look forward to working with them so more funding reaches businesses across the UK.”

Ravi Anand, managing director, ThinCats, added: “British Business Investments’ funding commitment constitutes a great success for our business, and we are looking forward to working together with the team. Our increasing diversity of institutional funding sources allows us to address the full spectrum of our target market and this new commitment plays an important role in this context.”

The FinTech alternative lending sector has grown significantly over the last few years, with annual origination volumes currently in excess of £2 billion spread across business lending, property lending, invoice finance and merchant cash advance.