News

British Business Bank ups Simply’s facility under its ENABLE Funding programme to £180m with a third financing tranche of £60m

  • Simply receives largest total facility from the Bank’s ENABLE Funding programme to support more asset finance for smaller businesses

Simply, the non-bank lender that was set up in April 2017 in response to the need for disruption in the asset finance sector, today announced that it has received a third facility from the British Business Bank, which will provide another £60m of lending. Together, the three rounds of financing are expected to provide more than £180m of funding to smaller businesses. This is the Bank’s largest total facility under its ENABLE Funding programme, which aims to improve the supply of asset and lease finance to smaller UK businesses.

Now employing more than 85 people, Simply has supported over 2000 customers in the two years that it has been in existence. In this time, the business has evolved from start-up to established industry player and has made clear its commitment to bringing positive change to the market and its customers.

Mike Randall, CEO of Simply, said: “We believe we are building something different, something that challenges the current industry status quo.  Our vision is simple. It’s all about believing in potential. Simply wants to lend money to entrepreneurs, family businesses and small and medium-sized enterprises across the country to let them grow and prosper. With every transaction, we enable them to employ staff, serve their customers and pump oxygen into the foundations of the SME economy.  And thanks to this third tranche from the British Business Bank, we are able to provide more of our customers with the tailored solutions and long-term partnerships that will see them through the whole economic cycle.”

Reinald de Monchy, Managing Director, Guarantee and Wholesale of the British Business Bank, said: “It’s a measure of the success of the Simply business and of our relationship with Mike Randall and the team that the Bank has increased its funding through the ENABLE Funding programme. Since our relationship began in 2017, it is encouraging to see that Simply has continued to increase the amount of leasing and asset finance available to businesses to help them purchase equipment, free up working capital and invest in growth. The Bank remains committed to increasing the diversity of finance provision, allowing non-bank entrants like Simply to help provide even more funding options to smaller businesses around the UK.”

Richard McDougall, Partner at Cabot Square Capital, said: “Simply has continued to make excellent progress and has now established itself as a credible player in the asset finance market. It is great that the British Business Bank is extending its support to Simply for the third time, alongside Cabot. Mike and his team provide an invaluable service to businesses across the country – Simply lends Cabot’s institutional capital and funds from the British Business Bank into the real economy in a modern way, with total focus on customer experience and outcomes.”

Ends

For more information contact:

Chantal Heckford

07940 389537

Chantal.heckford@simply.finance

Notes to editors:

About Simply

Simply provides finance to small and medium sized businesses in the UK to help them purchase equipment, free up working capital and invest in growth.  It was founded in April 2017 by a team of industry specialists, in response to the need for innovation and disruption in the asset finance sector. Simply prides itself on having implemented the most forward-thinking and flexible technology in the sector to enhance its customer-facing proposition, and provide customers with a better, faster, simpler, more efficient service.

Simply has now recruited over 85 of the best people in the industry and attracted more than 2000 customers across a variety sectors including manufacturing, construction, transport and recycling.  Simply is majority owned by a Cabot Square Capital fund. For more information: www.simply.finance

About Cabot Square Capital

Founded in 1996, Cabot Square Capital LLP is a leading provider of investment capital for small and mid-sized companies in the UK and Western Europe, with a particular focus on financial services, speciality lending and operating property businesses. It is a hands-on partner able to provide companies with capital for growth and acquisitions, assist management teams to build operations and infrastructure, develop intellectual property and enable strategic, long-term planning. Cabot is currently investing its fifth fund.

About the British Business Bank

The British Business Bank is the UK government’s economic development bank. Established in November 2014, its mission is to make finance markets for smaller businesses work more effectively, enabling those businesses to prosper, grow and build UK economic activity. Its remit is to design, deliver and efficiently manage UK-wide smaller business access to finance programmes for the UK government.

The British Business Bank programmes are supporting more than £6.4bn of finance to over 85,000 smaller businesses (as at end of December 2018).

As well as increasing both supply and diversity of finance for UK smaller businesses through its programmes, the Bank works to raise awareness of the finance options available to smaller businesses:

  • The Business Finance Guide (published in partnership with the ICAEW and a further 21 business and finance organisations) impartially sets out the range of finance options available to businesses at all stages – from start-ups to SMEs and growing mid-sized companies. Businesses can take the interactive journey at thebusinessfinanceguide.co.uk/bbb.

 

  • The new British Business Bank Finance Hub provides independent and impartial information to high-growth businesses about their finance options, featuring short films, expert guides, checklists and articles from finance providers to help make their application a success. The new site also features case studies and learnings from real businesses to guide businesses through the process of applying for growth finance.

 

As the holding company of the group operating under the trading name of British Business Bank, British Business Bank plc is wholly owned by HM Government and is not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The British Business Bank operates under its own brand name through a number of subsidiaries, one of which is authorised and regulated by the FCA.

British Business Bank plc and its principal operating subsidiaries are not banking institutions and do not operate as such. A complete legal structure chart for British Business Bank plc and its subsidiaries can be found on the British Business Bank plc website.

As well as supporting small Asset Finance providers through British Business Investments’ Investment Programme, the British Business Bank helps slightly larger Asset Finance providers to access capital markets more cost efficiently through its ENABLE Funding programme. It also recently introduced a new asset finance variant of its flagship Enterprise Finance Guarantee programme.

The British Business Bank/ICAEW/UK Finance guide to Asset Finance for advisers and businesses is downloadable from the British Business Bank website.