Iwoca, the UK-based business lending platform backed by financial services firms CommerzVentures and Intesa Sanpaolo, has received £20m ($26m) in series D funding, City AM reported on Monday.
The funding formed part of a larger £150m ($195m) debt and equity round. Augmentum Fintech led the equity portion with a $9.6m investment initially disclosed in January 2019, and the overall round included financial services firm NIBC Bank and venture capital firm Prime Ventures.
Founded in 2011, Iwoca supplies flexible short-term loans sized at up to approximately $260,000 to small and micro-sized businesses in the UK, Germany and Poland.
The company has so far lent about $780m altogether, and makes quick lending decisions by directly evaluating accounts, bank statements and tax returns uploaded by the client. It has now raised approximately $455m altogether, about $81m which is equity funding.
The tally includes a then undisclosed sum secured from Intesa Sanpaolo vehicle Neva Finventures in July 2017. Prime Ventures had led a $26.8m series C round featuring Commerzbank’s VC arm, CommerzVentures, as well as Acton Capital Partners, Global Founders Capital and Redline Capital the year before.
Iwoca had already attracted $20m of series B funding from CommerzVentures and Acton the previous year, after a $8.2m series A round in 2014 featuring marketing agency Beyond Digital and Founders Capital.
NIBC reportedly led a $71.2m debt round for Iwoca in April 2018 backed by Shawbrook Bank and Pollen Street Capital. Shawbrook had also committed $30.5m in debt financing in 2016.