Wiserfunding secures £3 million investment from BGF 

• Joins BGF’s portfolio of investments as one of the few profitable UK fintechs
• In the last 12 months, Wiserfunding’s clients helped over 30,000 SMEs accessing almost £3 billion in funding 
• Wiserfunding has signed more than 60 customers globally in the last two years including Revolut Business, Bank North, Assetz Capital, ArchOver and Fasanara Capital. 

London, UK – Tuesday 21st September, 2021 – London-based Wiserfunding, a leading provider of credit risk assessment for SME lenders, today announced it has secured £3 million investment from BGF – the UK and Ireland’s most active growth capital investor. This investment will support Wiserfunding in accelerating international expansion and strengthening its global position. 

Wiserfunding currently serves more than 60 customers across three continents, a mix of bank and non-bank lenders, insurance firms, payment providers and asset managers. Combined, Wiserfunding’s clients have lent almost £3 billion to SMEs in the last year. 

Wiserfunding is one of the UK’s few profitable fintechs. Dr. Gabriele Sabato and Dr. Edward Altman, creator of the famous Altman Z-score, founded the business in April 2016, with a mission to disrupt the SME credit risk space and become the market standard for SME risk assessment. The company is one of only a handful of fintechs within BGF’s investment portfolio, marking Wiserfunding’s huge growth potential in the UK and globally. 

With 10x customer growth in the past two years, Wiserfunding has built a strong market position in the financial industry and will use part of the investment to create new products for the supply-chain and procurement world as well as adding new unique features for financial institutions. Customers include: Revolut Business, the global super app valued at $33 billion; Bank North, a new business lender; peer-to-peer lenders Assetz Capital and ArchOver, and Fasanara Capital, an asset management company with approximately $1.9 billion of assets. 

Jason Snelling, Business Credit Manager at Revolut Business said: “At Revolut Business, we are using the Wiserfunding Rating Model to support the risk assessment of our business customers exposing us to credit risk. We also plan to deploy this solution into our underwriting process to expedite decisions in the future. The team has been supportive of our needs and constantly worked to ensure the right solution for our global super app.”

Wiserfunding’s proprietary risk assessment platform uses AI to provide accurate, reliable and unbiased credit risk assessment to ascertain the credit quality of SMEs and private firms. Its unique methodology has proven to be up to 30% more accurate than competitors. It makes use of financial history as well as publicly available structured and unstructured data including corporate governance, management experience and macroeconomic indicators. The suite of models is uniquely tailored to SMEs, providing geographical and sectoral segmentation to maximise prediction power. 

Gabriele Sabato, CEO, Wiserfunding said: “Access to capital is key to ensuring a post-pandemic recovery for SMEs globally, whilst the current economic landscape means that the financial industry needs a clear and accurate view of risk. This investment, alongside BGF’s expertise, will provide strategic support as we expand globally and will enable us to support the recovery of SMEs crying out for on-demand finance. With revenues having grown eight-fold in the space of just two years, we are closer than ever to achieving our mission to become the market standard for SME risk assessment.” 

The deal was led by James Austin and Rowan Bird at BGF. As part of the deal, James Austin will join Wiserfunding as director. 

James Austin at BGF said:

“Wiserfunding is a really exciting business, with a clear path to providing SMEs with greater access to finance. The credentials of the team and the quality of the outputs are second to none. As a result of BGF’s funding, we will be able to fast track the ongoing commercial roll-out and continue with the development plan which will keep adding depth and breadth to the product. This investment also represents a great addition into BGF’s growing fintech portfolio, which we hope to expand significantly in the near future. UK fintechs should be the envy of any global market and Wiserfunding is a great example of this.” 

For more on how Wiserfunding is supporting lenders and SMEs, please visit the website here. 

-ENDS 

About Wiserfunding: 

Wiserfunding (www.wiserfunding.com) enables traditional and alternative lenders to better allocate funds to SMEs, helping them to build their assets, lend money in a risk-managed way, and reduce the cost of acquiring new customers. Wiserfunding’s platform requires just a company number to get started and is managed by a team of risk experts. 

About BGF: 

BGF was set up in 2011 and has invested over £2.5bn in more than 400 companies, making it the most active growth capital investor in the UK. BGF is a minority, non-controlling equity partner with a patient outlook on investments, based on shared long-term goals with the management teams it backs. BGF

invests in growing businesses in the UK and Ireland through its network of 16 offices. In 2018, Canada launched its equivalent – the Canadian Business Growth Fund – and in 2020, Australia did the same, both based on BGF’s approach and funding model. Part of BGF’s investment in Wiserfunding comes from its recently launched UK Enterprise Fund established alongside Coutts to provide private clients with access to privately held, disruptive and diverse companies which are revolutionising their industries. See: www.bgf.co.uk. 

About Revolut Business: 

Revolut Business is the business account from fintech super-app Revolut, with over 500,000 business customers worldwide. Revolut Business was launched in July 2017 across the UK and Europe and helps customers get more from their business account with powerful tools that provide total control over their business’ finances. Revolut Business customers spend less time on admin and more time focused on what’s important – their business. 

Contacts 

Trent Olsen & Laura Butterton 

Clarity PR 
[email protected]