OpenLending launched at critical time for Britain’s SMEs
iwoca, one of Europe’s largest business lenders has today announced OpenLending, the new platform that – for the first time – can unify fintechs and banks to extend iwoca’s lending capabilities to over two million UK businesses.
With 14 partners already integrated, OpenLending brings the finance ecosystem together, allowing fintechs, banks, brokers, accountants and bookkeeping platforms to customise their offering of iwoca loans. This new platform allows partners such as Monese, Funding Options and Funding Xchange to tailor the user experience for their customers, giving them decisions and access to funds in seconds.
“The concept of OpenLending has the potential – through collaboration with the banks and fintech partners – to fix some of the biggest problems SMEs will face in the coming months.” said Christoph Rieche, iwoca’s CEO and co-founder.
“OpenLending is a fully digital platform that established banks can use to get finance to small businesses within minutes, opposed to weeks or even months. Digital access to finance is particularly valuable now where COVID-19 may lead to severe disruption of bank branch networks and call centres, reducing their ability to provide the service level that they aim for under normal circumstances. Now is the time to come together and work collaboratively to solve this problem”
“With our proven track record, we’re confident that by bringing the industry together we can give at least two million small businesses access to finance.”
Monese
“We want our small business customers to have the very best access to funding so that they can really thrive, which is why we’ve integrated with iwoca’s OpenLending platform, said Atul Choudrie, chief commercial officer at Monese. “It’s important that we partner with a leader in the SME lending space and give our customers the very best tools to control their finances and manage important cash flow gaps. We started Monese with a goal to provide businesses with financial freedom anywhere and everywhere, and I believe OpenLending will help us do that.”
Xero and OpenLending
iwoca and Xero, the UK’s leading online accounting platform, are currently undertaking deep research with a view to a potential customised finance solution in early 2021. This would be designed and built specifically for Xero’s customers, and making tailored finance products directly accessible from within the core Xero software.
