Southhampton based FundingKnight has increased its loan limit to £500,000 to match demand, according to a company statement. FundingKnight is a peer to peer lender that targets the business segment of the industry. The increase is effective immediately. The decision to raise the limit was described as reflecting “borrower demand from the market place and will extend across all current and pending products, including business loans, property bridging and finance for renewables”.
CEO Graeme Marshall said of the change:
“Our decision was taken in light of the demand we are experiencing in the market place from our existing and potential clients and from the professional intermediary community. Apart from widening our appeal and consolidating our position, it sends a powerful message out to the market about our expanding capacity for arranging business loans.”
“We achieved a major milestone at the end of last year when the number of borrowers topped 100, representing around £10m of lending. We are looking forward to expanding our offering for both investors and borrowers during the current year and beyond as the growth in the alternative finance market continues to gather pace.”
Loans on the platform will now range from £25,000 up to half a million pounds for periods of up to 5 years. Businesses that borrow must have been in operation for at least 2 years. FundingKnight vets all all inbound applications for loans. FundingKnight has completed 127 loans to date with the average size being around £83,000.
Marshall, the founder of FundingKnight, has over 30 years’ experience of building and creating businesses mainly in the financial services sector. Prior to starting FundingKnight, he built a specialist equity release business, Sovereign Reversions plc, which was listed on AIM and sold to a competitor in 2010.
The FundingKnight advisory board includes Geoff Miller, the CEO of GLI Finance Limited and a Non-Executive Director of Hastings Insurance Group Limited; and Mash Patel one of the founders of Kurtosys, a Silicon Valley backed technology company specialising in the financial services sector.