The largest VC fintech investment in Australia has been made
SME lender Prospa has received $25 million from AirTree Ventures in its latest funding round.
Small business lender Prospa has today announced it has closed the largest fintech VC investment deal in an Australian business, receiving $25 million in capital. The funding was from AirTree Ventures and existing investors including Entrée Capital and Ironbridge Capital.
To coincide with the announcement, the company also surpassed $250 million in funds lent to Australian businesses.
Co-founder and joint-CEO of Prospa Beau Bertoli said this investment speaks to the necessity of accessible small business finance in Australia.
“Small businesses are the driving force of the Australian economy. We’ve solved a huge challenge of access to finance for them by building the best local lending platform, making it faster and easier to get a small business loan than it ever has been,” he said.
According to Bertoli, partnerships have been key to Prospa's growth and future success, a sentiment that was echoed by AirTree Ventures' managing partner Craig Blair.
“Greg and Beau have built a world class team and are obsessing over how to solve customer problems in a better, faster way. They are exactly the kind of founders we want to partner with.”
"This is a coming of age of the fintech sector in Australia."
It's a strong start to the year for Prospa, which also hit quite a few milestones in 2016. After reaching $200 million in loan originations, the company announced a successful capital funding round of $50 million. The lender also ranked highest out of Australian companies on the global Fintech100 list from KPMG, coming in at number 31.
Prospa also continued its support of Australian businesses by partnering with The Entourage to offer interest-free loans to entrepreneurs.
Prospa will use its latest funds to invest in accelerating its market leadership, technology, product and talent acquisition.
Read the Prospa Business Loan review
