Funding Circle, Atom Partner On Lending For UK SMBs

U.K. small business loan platform Funding Circle will work with U.K.-based mobile bank Atom, on a 300-million-pound (about $426 million) lending partnership, according to a press release.

There has already been 350 million pounds (about $497 million) lent from Atom through Funding Circle, the release stated, and this will bring the total up to 650 million pounds (about $923 million) lent.

Atom plans to use Funding Circle’s technology and distribution platform to send out funding to around 4,000 small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the U.K., according to the release.

Funding Circle will provide Atom with machine learning (ML) models, which will make its operations more efficient, the release stated. Funding Circle uses its Instant Decision Lending tech in order to let SMBs apply for funding and get lending decisions in minutes. The partnership plans to use Funding Circle’s Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS) in order to lend to numerous investors, “including banks, asset management companies, insurance companies, government-backed entities, individuals and funds.”

Funding Circle Europe Managing Director Lisa Jacobs said in the release that it is “great to see Funding Circle’s machine learning and distribution capabilities being leveraged as a key solution towards increasing the flow of funding to the real economy, powering the economic recovery.”

“Ever since we started lending to U.K. [SMBs] in 2016, we have been committed to supporting business owners, most recently as a leading lender of broker-led secured loans via [the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS)],” Atom Chief Customer Officer Edward Twiddy said in the release. “We’re excited to be partnering with Funding Circle, leveraging their market-leading tech to continue our support for British businesses.”

There are more and more examples of automated inventory and liquidity management, which can help integrate inventory management with point-of-sale (POS) systems and cut down on the guesswork for determining the popularity of various projects, PYMNTS reported.