OakNorth closes $440m funding round
Written by Peter Walker
08/02/19
OakNorth has secured a $440 million investment from the SoftBank Vision Fund and the Clermont Group.
This round takes OakNorth’s total primary and secondary funding to over $1 billion, more than any other FinTech in Europe, according to the company.
This financing will be used to launch its lending operations in the US, providing North American lenders with the capability to expand business lending opportunities and accelerate their business lending.
OakNorth’s services help its bank lending partners originate and do the credit analysis on loans, along with monitoring their loan portfolios – enabling the business to lend over $3.7 billion to British businesses without a single default or late payment since its launch in September 2015.
The company is now looking to unlock billions of dollars of funding to America’s fast-growth small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
SoftBank’s support will also help open doors to institutions, with the goal of deploying the OakNorth Analytical Intelligence platform to more banks and lenders around the world. The technology is currently being used by institutions in Asia, North America and Europe – including NIBC Bank in the Netherlands, which participated in the $100 million fundraising the group closed in September 2018.
Rishi Khosla, co-founder of OakNorth, said: “With this finance from SoftBank and follow-on investment from Clermont, we will be able to continue scaling the group’s operations globally.
“We have a relentless focus on helping small and medium-sized businesses across the world that are in growth mode access better financing to fund their development,” he added.
