Manchester FinTech Firenze has raised £6m a year after its £2.5m seed round.

The firm aiming to redefine Lombard lending said the round was led by AlbionVC, with follow-on participation from all major existing investors, including Outward VC and Form Ventures.

Firenze, launched in January 2024 by co-founders David Newman and Anna Curtis, is an embedded finance platform allowing wealth managers to offer loans from as little as £65,000 secured against clients’ investment portfolios.

Because borrowing is secured lending with highly liquid collateral, Lombard lending offers lower interest rates compared to typical unsecured loans and allows decisions to be made in hours rather than weeks or months.

These so-called Lombard loans have typically only been available to clients of private banks who have, as a minimum, £1m of investments.