The service, to be offered to a group of pilot customers over the next month, promises to provide approval for funding between £500 and £100,000 within a matter of minutes and access to the funds within a day - a process that currently takes between two and 12 weeks.

The Kabbage platform uses a risk scoring methodology determined by Santander UK’s credit experts, alongside multiple external sources including credit ratings, social media, payments providers, online marketplaces and bank account history.

Sigga Sigurdardottir, chief customer & innovation officer, Santander UK says: “The strengths of the Kabbage platform lies in terms of real-time risk modelling and its extensive capabilities to cross reference data against multiple sources. When added to our own customer base, trusted reputation, UK payments infrastructure and understanding of the requirements of UK businesses, this creates a powerful proposition.”

The service will be rolled out more widely after an initial trial period which will be used to fine-tune the platform's lending algorithms, he adds.

Nathan Bostock, chief executive officer, Santander UK says: “Our collaboration with Kabbage aims to provide UK businesses with the ability to draw down funds as and when required, whether this be covering a short-term funding need or enabling them to seize growth opportunities as they arise.”

Santander InnoVentures, along with ING and Scotiabank joined in a $135 million funding round in the US-based company in October last year.

ING has already begun offering loans of up to EUR100,000 to small businesses in Spain via the Kabbage platform.