Nucleus raises £200m from NatWest to boost SME lending
Nucleus Commercial Finance has secured a funding line worth up to £200m from NatWest, which it will use to expand its business loan offering.
The funding follows the launch of Nucleus’ new business loan product, which offers loans of up to £2m to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across the UK. The fintech lender has onboarded an AI-powered automated underwriting system which will give SME borrowers a funding decision within minutes.
“There has been a significant funding gap in the UK for several years, leaving SMEs struggling to meet their full potential through lack of access to financing,” said Chirag Shah, chief executive of Nucleus Commercial Finance.
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“With innovation a top priority for fintech lenders, businesses are now finally able to seamlessly secure the funding they need to thrive. Through investments in tech, including embracing AI and the open banking/open accounting initiatives, we’ve managed to overhaul our entire lending process and now 96 per cent of our decisions are made in under one minute.
“Nucleus business loans provide a viable and accessible alternative, delivering the finance SMEs need to grow, with the speed and terms suited to their needs.”
The NatWest funding line brings Nucleus’ total funding to £900m, and moves the fintech lender closer to reaching its £3bn lending milestone.
“NatWest is very pleased to support Nucleus Commercial Finance in their new stage of business development through this transaction,” said Klaus Fister, managing director of speciality finance at NatWest.
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“We are happy to see that this lending facility contributes towards NatWest’s purpose to support small and medium sized businesses in the UK to grow and thrive, along with the wider UK economy.”
Shah said that the new funding line is fantastic news for Nucleus and its customers, as it will enable more competitively-priced funding to be made available to UK SMEs at speed.
“It reinforces our role as a true alternative to high street banks, opening the potential to work with more businesses across sectors and sizes and to branch into the support of larger businesses, which we believe are currently underserved,” Shah added.
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