Australian challenger bank Judo gets $350m funding boost
Melbourne-based challenger bank Judo Capital is edging towards a bank licence with a $350 million debt facility agreement with firm Credit Suisse.
Depth charge
The bank shared the news with Business Insider. David Hornery, co-founder and co-CEO of Judo, says the facility will provide further depth to Judo’s funding for Australian SMEs.
“Since Judo’s launch earlier this year, demand for our relationship focused SME lending has surged because we actually take the time to understand the strength of the whole business,” he says.
The head of debt capital markets and asset finance for Credit Suisse Australia, Will Farrant, says Credit Suisse has a strong record of backing highly credentialed entrepreneurs and clients from the early stages of their existence and then collaborating with them over the long term to finance their growth with a full suite of solutions.
“We have significantly grown our securitisation business focused on entrepreneurial clients over the last few years, and we are looking at financing all stages of a company’s lifecycle, from early stage to maturity and across the capital spectrum,” he says.
“Judo has a high-quality management team and a scalable business model. It is very well positioned as a disrupter for traditional SME business lending and our strategy is to back entrepreneurs to help them grow.”
The news follows on from September when Judo selected Temenos’ T24 core system, channels, analytics and financial crime mitigation; and from August when it got $140 million in funding.
Back in March, Judo said it started the process of applying for a banking licence from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) – the culmination of a “strategic build-up of the company” over the past three years.
The Australian challenger bank scene is a lively one. Check out our list of banks here.
