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An online SME lender has secured $25 million in growth funding and revealed that it has passed $250 million in total loans written for Australian small businesses.
Prospa this week revealed that the $25 million provided by AirTree Ventures is the largest fintech venture capital investment in an Australian business. Prospa will use the funds to boost technology, expand its product range, broaden its distribution footprint and continue building its brand in the Australian market.
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The investment comes after a period of significant growth for Prospa, which has surpassed $250 million in SME lending.
Prospa’s founder and joint CEO Greg Moshal said continued interest from tech investors like Airtree, and the scale of their investment, recognises the difficulties small businesses have in accessing finance.
"We’re driving a fundamental change in the way 2 million small business owners in Australia access finance,” he said.
“We’ve now provided over 10,000 loans and put over $250 million into the Australian small business economy. All the while maintaining our ability to wow our customers, which continues to be proven through a stellar customer satisfaction score of over 90 per cent.”
AirTree Ventures’ managing partner, Craig Blair, said Prospa’s chief executives have built a world-class team and are “obsessing” over how to solve customer problems in a better, faster way.
“They are exactly the kind of founders we want to partner with,” he said.
"This is a coming of age of the fintech sector in Australia. Prospa is a real business solving a real problem, winning awards with tremendous customer and market feedback while achieving profitability from the very early days.”
Prospa passed $250 million in loan originations and has added a series of strategic partnerships with Westpac, Reckon and Mortgage Choice.
Co-founder and joint CEO Beau Bertoli said strong partnerships are key to Prospa’s rapid growth and future success.
“To reach more small business owners, we’ll continue to invest in partnerships with trusted brands who share our values of putting their small business customers first,” he said.
“Small businesses are the driving force of the Australian economy. We’ve solved a huge challenge of access to finance for them by building the best local lending platform, making it faster and easier to get a small business loan than it ever has been.”
[Related: OnDeck ramps up broker distribution strategy]
