MarketFinance forms strategic partnership with Funding Options

London, 14.06.2022: Leading fintech payments and credit company MarketFinance has partnered with Funding Options to join its real-time lending platform, Funding CloudTM. Funding CloudTM enables lenders to bridge the SME funding gap by providing businesses with the best finance options on the market, at speed and powered by technology. 

MarketFinance has strengthened its finance origination capability by developing a Lending API to embed its products in Funding CloudTM. Through Funding CloudTM, SME customers will now have near-instant access to MarketFinance's highly competitive term loan product, as well as being able to compare real-time quotes amongst the leading alternative lenders in the UK. This increased competition and emphasis on speed will drive improved customer outcomes at a critical time for UK SMEs who are managing rising costs amidst a volatile economic outlook. 

Funding Options launched its award-winning Funding CloudTM platform in April 2021 and has now reached a record of 20 seconds from loan application to credit approval, with time from application to funds in the bank of just 18 minutes. As modern customers move towards multi-product ecosystems where they can get access to products and services in one place, embedded finance partnerships such as this one will enable financial services companies to increase their customer acquisition and drive new revenue streams.

Anil Stocker, CEO and co-founder of MarketFinance says, “As a leader in embedded payments and digital finance in the UK, we are excited to partner with Funding Options as we join their real-time lending platform. Speed and seamless access to finance is crucial to small businesses, particularly in the current economic climate. Embedding our lending products in the Funding Cloud will enable us to reach more customers, when they need us, and helps to drive our vision of frictionless finance.”

Simon Cureton, CEO of Funding Options comments, “Now more than ever, UK SMEs need fast and efficient access to the best funding options on the market as they battle higher costs and an uncertain economic outlook. At Funding Options, we recognise the importance of technology in facilitating funding, through embedded finance and open banking, and this partnership enables us to add greater supply to our digital lending proposition. As significant demand returns to the alternative lending sector, it is those that embrace innovation to deliver a great customer experience who will thrive.”   

ENDS

About Funding Options

Funding Options is a leading data-driven marketplace for business finance, helping SMEs get the right funding in place so they can trade, plan and grow with confidence. Working with more than 120 lender partners offering the broadest range of finance options available, they’ve helped more than 11,600 businesses across the UK and Netherlands securing over £600m in funding. 

In a highly fragmented SME lending ecosystem, Funding Options is fast becoming the de facto marketplace for business finance, connecting businesses, lenders and partners in a frictionless digital journey. Funding Options sees over £1bn of demand for business finance from SMEs every month and last year alone facilitated £140 million of funding for more than 1,600 customers.

As well as employing a dedicated team of experienced Business Finance Specialists, the company is transforming the way SMEs access finance through Funding Cloud™, the first fully integrated and real-time lending platform. It uses data analytics, open banking APIs and Artificial Intelligence to auto-decision the approval of loans, meaning borrowers’ needs are matched to the most suitable lenders and access to funding is possible within minutes. 

Through Funding Cloud™, loan application to credit approval has taken just 20 seconds, with the record for application to funds in an SME’s bank account just 18 minutes. 

Recognised as a fast-growth scaleup, Funding Options has twice been named in the top half of the FT 1000, the annual list of Europe’s fastest-growing companies, Lendtech of the year in the UK Fintech Awards 2021 and is part of Silicon Valley Comes to the UK’s (SVC2UK) 2020 Scale-Up Club cohort, a prestigious annual list of fast-growth UK technology companies destined for great things.

About MarketFinance

MarketFinance is a fintech business payments and credit company which believes that SMEs are underserved by legacy financial institutions. By making finance frictionless, they’re solving the payments and cash flow issues getting in the way of progress. MarketFinance uses smart technology to deliver better access to faster, more affordable payments and finance, with one-to-one personal help whenever businesses need it.

Since 2011, MarketFinance has helped businesses collect over £20 billion in B2B payments, and advanced over £3 billion worth of credit through working capital and business loans, enabling thousands of UK businesses to bridge today’s funding gaps and fuel tomorrow’s big ambitions. MarketFinance is an accredited Recovery Loan Scheme lender and has a wide-reaching network of strategic partners including Barclays Bank UK PLC, Tide Bank, Equals Group and Ebury.

MarketFinance is backed by an array of prestigious equity investors including Northzone, Barclays Bank UK PLC and Mouro Capital.