FinTech lender Assetz Capital has applied for a £10m grant, the latest pool of the Banking Competition Remedies (BCR) as it continues to scale its SME lending.
The £1bn peer-to-peer marketplace lender has submitted an application for Pool E that consists of £100 million and is open to eligible bodies providing innovation financial services to UK SMEs.
The £100m was given back to BCR by Metro Bank (£50m) and Nationwide (£50m) for redistribution to new challengers to the banking sector such as Assetz Capital.
The money was returned after the pair of lenders cancelled their growth plans in the SME funding sector.
Assetz Capital is the second largest peer-to-peer business lender in Europe and offers commercial mortgages and development finance.
The company joins other FinTechs in applying for a slice of the grant, including the likes Starling Bank, Tide, ClearBank, Coconut, Contis and Cashplus.
In seven years since inception, Assetz Capital has lent over £1 billion to UK SMEs, and funded 3,000 new homes in both 2018 and 2019.
Stuart Law, CEO at Assetz Capital said: “We’ve established ourselves to be a leading SME lender, serving the many underserved SMEs seeking loan funding.
“By December 2022 we’re aiming to have lent a further £1 billion to SMEs, supporting around another 25,000 jobs and funding the development of at least 3,500 further new homes.
“We have a market-leading lending capability – combining human and technology-based credit assessment, innovative loan application technology and regional relationship directors to meet customers.
“This BCR grant, combined with a further £10m matched contribution from ourselves, would enable us to build on these strong foundations and grow even faster, allowing us to provide even greater support for underserved UK SMEs.”