Lendtech Ezbob buzzing with sweet investment from Honeycomb
Alternative business lending company Ezbob has closed a round of equity. The amount of the financing was undisclosed and boosts the UK-based start-up’s total combined debt and equity funding higher than its previous total of $136 million (£103 million). Of that amount, $50.3+ million (£38.2+ million) is equity and $81.9 million (£62.2 million) is debt, reports Julie Muhn at Finovate.
The amount of the financing was undisclosed
The Series C funds come from Honeycomb Investment Trust, which is managed by Pollen Street Capital, an investor focused on lending start-ups.
Lindsey McMurray, Pollen Street founding partner, will join Ezbob’s board of directors. Ezbob will use the funds to build out a “more robust” automated lending portfolio and to expand into new geographical territory.
Regarding McMurray’s involvement, Tomer Guriel, founder and CEO of Ezbob, says: “Our initial focus is on the SME community, many of whom struggle to acquire the financial support they need to achieve their personal and professional business development goals.”
In addition to lending directly to small businesses in need of capital, Ezbob offers banks a Lending-as-a Service platform for their small business banking customers. Esme Loans and Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks (CYBG) are among the company’s clients.
Founded in 2011, Ezbob has 70 employees across offices in London, Tel Aviv, and Bulgaria.
The company started this year off with the announcement of a $21 million funding round.
It has also recently hired fintech industry veteran Marc Philippo as its VP of sales and marketing. Most recently he was head of corporate, retail banking and merchant services for Northern Europe at Finastra (formerly Misys). Prior to this, he formed the global mid-tier solutions group at paytech provider Dovetail (now part of Fiserv). Before this, he was sales director at Temenos where he also established the global inside sales team.
