Small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) finance platform Alternative Business Funding (ABF) has raised £6 million in funding to fuel its expansion.

ABF will use the money to build upon the 25,000 registered small businesses and £40 million in SME finance it has made available since its launch in 2014, with a particular focus on accelerating the development of its technology, helping it to provide predictive lending powered to customers and capitalise on Open Banking.

It has designated status, as approved by HM Treasury, on the recommendation of the British Business Bank for the government-led Bank Referral Scheme, launched as the UK’s first collaborative SME funding platform.

ABF’s platform uses automation of data to match SMEs with a wide range of funders, based on the business requirements and against the suitability of the funding product.

The fund is currently driving ahead with plans to further disrupt the £110 billion market in funding for SMEs, with a goal of reaching of reaching 160,000 company registrations and £500 million of SME finance in the next five years.

ABF is also eying up the future potential of international expansion to access the global business funding market.

Chairman Adam Tavener said: “ABF is at a very exciting time, and with the ‘go compare’ culture rapidly growing in popularity – we see that it is only a matter of time before, as with other financial products, those businesses seeking commercial finance will go online to compare the funding solutions open to them, before even visiting their bank.

“With our strong brand and scalable technology, we also see a real opportunity to move into other business services such as equity finance, personal lending, business banking, and credit cards,” he added.

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