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The SME lender has acquired a commercial finance brokerage and welcomed its director to the team as northern regional manager.
Prospa has announced that is acquiring Queensland-based commercial brokerage Loanezi, headed up by broker and CAFBA director Renee Tocco.
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The deal, expected to be completed in October 2021, will see almost 1,000 small-business Loanezi customers managed by Prospa.
While details of the arrangement are yet to be finalised, it is expected that the Loanezi brand will remain in market, with the team joining Prospa.
Ms Tocco will also become Prospa’s northern regional manager, and will work closely with the broker community across NSW, ACT and Queensland.
She has more than 10 years’ experience in senior sales roles and established Loanezi as a national business to service individuals and businesses with lending solutions.
Prospa said that the move demonstrates its commitment to further strengthen partnerships in the finance broker market.
Beau Bertoli, co-founder and chief revenue officer at Prospa, said: “Prospa is Australia’s leading online lender to small businesses, and Loanezi brings one of Australia’s best known industry professionals, Renee Tocco, to the Prospa team.
“This strengthens our broker market leadership team and continues our commitment to provide the highest levels of service to all our partners.”
Speaking to The Adviser, Mr Bertoli added: "Renee brings a rich level of relationships and a deep understanding across the broker community. She really does have a sense of what brokers need and how to service and support brokers in terms of their aspirations and their business requirements. We want to tap into all that expertise that Renee brings and really start thinking about how we can increase our service level and service delivery that we've built a reputation around, and we really want to take it to the next level.
"We really think that Renee can help inform a lot of those those choices and decisions that we need to make in order to improve kind of our positioning our branding, and our partners experience."
The co-founder outlined that there was "optionality" with the transaction regarding what the final deal would look like, telling The Adviser: "We haven't made any final decisions in terms of the structure yet (whether it will continue just as a brokerage or not), but I definitely think we're going to evolve the business model so that we can bring the best of Loanezi to the table and the best of Prospa to the table."
He continued: "The broker market is a really important partner to our business and we're going to continue to invest in it, not only through people but also technology and the right kind of products that our partners want us to build and so they are able to go to their customers and service their customers with them."
He said that the company was targeting northern NSW and Queensland for future growth, adding it represented "a really big opportunity for us to really expand our service offerings and think about who we are and what we are to that part of the market".
Roberto Sanz, Prospa’s national sales manager, added: “Renee is a renowned leader within the industry and a great addition to Prospa’s extraordinary channel leadership team of Erin Manhood (southern regional manager) and Phillip Wagener (sales manager – BDMs).
“I’m thrilled with Renee’s appointment as northern regional manager and the continued growth of our BDM team in every state.”
Speaking of the agreement, Ms Tocco commented: “I’m excited to be joining the market leader in small business lending.
“My passion and belief in finance brokers is second to none and in my new role I look forward to providing significant value across the board.”
You can find out more about Ms Tocco and her brokerage, Loanezi, in this 2019 recording of Elite Broker:
Tune in to find out:
- Why she chose to go down the independent route
- Why women need to support each other in the finance and commercial broking sector
- The importance of finding a niche prior to diversification
And plenty more!
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