EZBob Ltd., which trades as business e-lenders Everline and EZBob, today announced that it has closed its Series C investment round with a £20m equity investment from Leumi Partners, the investment banking arm of Israel-based Bank Leumi, and funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management L.P. (“Oaktree”), an existing investor.
This latest investment round provides EZBob Ltd. with additional capital to increase its lending capacity and further develop its leading technology platform to enable more of the country’s 5.2m SMEs to instantly access the capital needed to fuel their growth plans, any time and from anywhere.
Bank Leumi is one of Israel’s largest banks and a leading global bank in digitalisation. The bank has a history of investing in tech and recently expanded its highly rated tech offering, LeumiTech, by opening a London operation. EZBob Ltd. marks the bank’s first investment in FinTech and is further proof of how FinTech start-ups like EZBob Ltd. are working together with the traditional banking sector to improve customer experience through the use of game-changing technology.
Oaktree’s investment was led by Vice Presidents Assaf Littner and Stefano Mazzoli of its London-based European Principal Group, an existing shareholder and debt provider of EZBob.
Tomer Guriel, CEO and co-founder of EZBob Ltd., said: “Raising investment from a leading global bank in digitalisation and an active investor within tech is proof of our game-changing technology and unique approach to business lending. This latest investment will further accelerate our growth plans and enable us to continue to develop our proprietary business lending platform to address more of the UK’s business lending needs.
“Oaktree’s additional investment is an endorsement of the management team, the business’ scalability and the appetite for a fresh approach to business finance in the UK. We’ve already experienced significant growth in the last 12 months and the market opportunity remains huge.”
Prof. Danny Tsiddon, Chairman of Leumi Partners and Leumi Group Deputy CEO, added: "This is Leumi’s first major investment in FinTech outside of Israel. Business e-lending is rapidly growing around the world and is attracting global banks, who see its potential and allocate more and more resources towards it. It is only natural that a bank which specialises in Israeli high-tech and spearheads innovation has chosen to invest in this leading FinTech start-up."
EZBob Ltd. has now provided over £100 million funding and over 8,500 loans to small and medium-sized businesses in the UK through its trading brands Everline and EZbob. In the last 12 months, the FinTech start-up has announced a partnership with Alibaba.com, as well as the first loan guarantee agreement in the U.K. with the European Investment Fund (EIF) to the value of £40 million. The UK government-supported Angel Co-Fund is also an investor.
The e-lender’s fully automated smart lending platform links directly to a business’ key data sources, such as cloud based accounting services, tax reports and bank statements, to make up-to-date and rapid lending decisions based on the business’ performance. The application process, risk and decision making and servicing are all fully automated, meaning funds of up to £120,000 can be in a business’ bank account within minutes.