Esme Loans, the NatWest backed standalone digital lending platform for SMEs, announced last week it has hit £50 million of lending to UK businesses. The online lender reported that it has seen a continued period of strong growth, following an uplift in lending of 337% between 2017 and 2018. It was revealed:
“Esme was borne out of an ‘innovation cell’ within NatWest, in response to the emergence of innovative, direct P2P lending platforms across the market. The platform was developed with the aim of simplifying and speeding up the lending process for UK SMEs.”
Speaking about the milestone, Richard Kerton, CEO of Esme Loans stated:
“We’re delighted to be able to support UK entrepreneurs and small businesses. We have achieved great momentum since launch just over two years ago, and we are now lending over three times more than we were this time last year. Our customers tell us they love the speed and ease of our platform, and we are continuing to invest in our technology to ensure that we’re offering a seamless, intuitive experience that provides customers with the funding they need.”
Esme Loans added it recently announced it had enlisted Microsoft to build a data warehouse and AI-assisted chatbot to help improve its customer experience; in January, NatWest also announced that it was beginning to offer the product directly to its Business Banking customers for the first time.