Credit In The Commonwealth: Spotcap Provides Small Business Financing By Partnering With Institutions

The Benzinga Global Fintech Awards are a yearly showcase of the best and brightest in fintech. In preparation for its biggest installment yet in May 2018, we're profiling the companies competing for the BZ Awards.

Our next feature is on Spotcap.

What does your company do? What unique problem does it solve?

Keeley Reynolds, Global Head of Communications, Spotcap: Modern business owners are dynamic, flexible and fast — always looking to meet customer demands. When they see an opportunity, they want to capitalize on it, and for that they need financial flexibility. We don’t want SMEs to spend all of their time and energy thinking about financing. We want them to have flexible financing on terms they can manage. 

Spotcap operates as a direct lender to SMEs in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Spain, Australia and New Zealand where we offer promising businesses access to flexible finance. Spotcap’s online application is straightforward and can be completed in as little as five minutes, either online or in collaboration with a financial advisor, broker or accountant. Recognising the strength and potential of our full-service lending platform, leading institutions want to work with us to provide their SME clients with an efficient and straightforward lending experience. 

We don’t take shortcuts when assessing our loan applications. We use tried and tested credit assessment principles, combined with advanced data analysis, machine learning and human analytical skill to make a robust assessment of how a business is performing today, and a prediction about its future performance. 

Whether working with a partner, or lending directly to SMEs, Spotcap’s innovative technologies, lending platform and unique approach to assessing the creditworthiness of SMEs is making finance more accessible.

Who are your customers?

Spotcap’s typical customer is a mature business owner in the capital development stage, showing strong signs of growth. Our average customer has been in business for more than 10 years, turns over more than two million in revenue each year and is more than 40 years old. 

How long have you been in business?

Spotcap was founded in 2014. 

Where are you located?

Spotcap is headquartered in Berlin Germany, and operates as a direct lender to SMEs in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Spain, Australia and New Zealand. Spotcap is also a strategic partner of BAWAG Group and its subsidiary bank BAWAG P.S.K. Spotcap has provided its lending platform and proprietary analytics to enable BAWAG P.S.K. to offer same-day financing to SMEs. 

Who is your company's leadership? What kind of experience do they have?

Led by Founder and CEO Jens Woloszczak, Spotcap is run by a team that have decades of experience at traditional financial institutions. We have been through credit cycles and are aware of systematic risks. Together we have built Spotcap to withstand macroeconomic conditions and industry trends.

Who are your investors, if any?

Spotcap has raised 100 million euros in funding and is backed by a number of high profile investors including Rocket Internet, Finstar Financial Group, Access Industries, Holtzbrinck Ventures and Heartland Bank. 

Is there anything else Benzinga should know about your company?

Spotcap recently announced a strategic partnership with BAWAG Group, to offer same-day financing to Austrian SMEs. This strategic partnership is the first time Spotcap has offered its lending platform and proprietary analytics to a major institution, financial or otherwise, and marked the launch of our Lending-as-a-Service proposition. 

This collaboration is a great example of how partnerships can benefit everyone involved - the customers, the banks and the fintech industry. We believe that the need for innovation and the advent of PSD2 and Open Banking will further drive collaboration across the financial services sector. As customers demand more innovative products, many banks will look to fintech companies for expertise and technology solutions. Fintechs, in return, can benefit from banks’ abundant customer base, which will enable them to offer deeper financial insights and refined services. The end result is an empowered consumer with greater financial literacy, and access to financial services and products at competitive prices. 

Photo courtesy Spotcap.

To check out companies like Spotcap for yourself, grab a ticket to the Benzinga Global Fintech Awards May 15-16 in New York.