20 June 2022
- The partnership will leverage Funding Circle’s machine learning capabilities to deploy more than £300m funding to UK small businesses
Funding Circle, the UK’s largest small business loan platform, and a UK affiliate of Magnetar Capital (“Magnetar UK”), a leading alternative investment manager, today announce a lending partnership that is expected to provide more than £300m of funding to small businesses over a three-year period.
This partnership will see Magnetar UK support thousands of UK SMEs by leveraging Funding Circle’s technology and distribution platform. In turn, Funding Circle’s powerful machine learning models — driven by a decade of technology and data investment — will provide Magnetar UK with a highly efficient and cost-effective mechanism to deploy capital to the real economy.
Funding Circle’s market-leading and unparalleled instant decision technology enables small businesses to apply for finance in an average of six minutes, with lending decisions in as little as nine seconds. This seamless functionality is helping provide small businesses with fast and simple access to finance, allowing them to grow, create jobs and power the economy.
Magnetar UK joins a wide range of investors lending through Funding Circle’s platform, including banks, asset management companies, insurance companies, government-backed entities, individuals and funds.
The partnership with Magnetar UK — who was advised by AgFe, a European private credit specialist — follows on from last month’s commitment by Waterfall Asset Management to lend a further £1bn through the Funding Circle platform.
“We’re pleased to welcome Magnetar UK to the Funding Circle platform. At a vital moment in the UK’s economic recovery, its commitment will see thousands of small businesses access the finance they need to invest, grow and create jobs in their communities. It’s great to see our technology and machine learning capabilities being used in this way by a wide range of investors.”
Lisa Jacobs
CEO, Funding Circle
“Magnetar UK has an established track record of successfully partnering with banks and other financial institutions, including fintech companies, to provide creative funding solutions to growing businesses. We are delighted to now join forces with Funding Circle to generate financing solutions that will continue to fuel entrepreneurialism across the UK and help SMEs thrive. Funding Circle has the right team, technology and expertise in place to create meaningful impact throughout the UK SME economy.”
Aidan McKeown
Portfolio Manager, Magnetar UK
ENDS
For more information
press@fundingcircle.com/ +44 (0) 203 667 2245
About Funding Circle
Funding Circle is the UK’s largest loan platform for SMEs. Founded in 2010, its market-leading and unparalleled instant decision lending technology enables small businesses to apply for finance in an average of six minutes, with lending decisions in as little as nine seconds. A wide range of investors are utilising this technology and distribution platform to lend c. £14 billion to approximately 120,000 businesses globally. This is providing small businesses with the fast and simple access finance they need to grow and power the economy. In 2021, lending through Funding Circle's UK platform is estimated to have contributed £7.2bn to GDP and supported 100,000 jobs.
About Magnetar
Founded in 2005, Magnetar is a multi-strategy alternative investment manager with approximately $13.8 billion of assets under management as of May 1, 2022. Magnetar seeks to achieve stable risk-adjusted returns by opportunistically employing a wide-range of alternative credit and fixed income, energy and infrastructure, and systematic investing strategies. Magnetar invests across regions and business structures, in both public and private markets, taking advantage of the deep rigor of fundamental and quantitative analysis. Magnetar UK is based in London. For more information, visit www.magnetar.com.