London's Liberis Group to scale Funding-as-a-Service platform with £32 million round

Liberis, the London-based fintech startup, has closed a £32 million funding round led by FTV Capital. This investment brings Liberis’ total debt and equity funding to over £150 million, and will enable the company to continue financing small businesses around the world. “Small businesses are the lifeblood of the global economy, yet they continue to be turned away by banks and traditional lenders or faced with unhelpful repayment terms and complex processes,” explained CEO Rob Straathof. Since its start in 2007, Liberis has provided over 15,000 small businesses with more than £450 million in funding, the majority of which came through its innovative Funding-as-a-Service platform. The business has expanded through a strategic partnership model, linking with global (and undisclosed) brands that also service small business customers and white-labeling its financial services for them. Over the last 18 months, Liberis has expanded into five new countries, including the UK, US, Sweden, Czech Republic, Slovak and Finland. In 2020 the company plans to grow its footprint in the US, enter two more European countries, and grow the team by 30 percent. Commenting on the new funding, Straathof said: “ We are delighted with this investment from FTV Capital as it means we can continue to onboard new partners, expand our product range and grow our team in order to serve the 50 million small businesses across the US, Europe and the UK with much needed funding. 2020 is set to be an exciting year for Liberis and this financial investment will help to accelerate our plans so we can support thousands more small businesses around the world with fast, flexible and fair funding.” Jerome Hershey of FTV Capital, who is joining the Liberis board, said: ‘FTV believes the convergence of payment processing and small business funding presents a massive investment opportunity. Liberis’ differentiated distribution model offers a compelling value proposition for both its strategic partners and small business customers.” To strengthen its global operations, Liberis has recently appointed General Managers for both the US and Europe. Howard Kramen will cover the US, having previously led PayPal’s global credit operations. Meanwhile Pedram Tadayon will manage Europe, bringing experience from his time as CEO of Emric (a fintech provider in credit management) and in senior positions at Nets, EnterCard, and American Express.