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British Business Bank increases Simply’s facility under ENABLE Funding programme with a fourth financing tranche

Press release 06 October 2020

  • This fourth tranche of financing means the total facility is the largest under the Bank’s ENABLE Funding programme and is expected to provide over £230m of funding to UK businesses

Simply, the non-bank SME lender, today announced a fourth financing tranche from the British Business Bank to add to its existing ENABLE Funding facility. In total the four rounds of financing will provide more than £230m of funding to smaller businesses across the UK. This is now the largest facility under the Bank’s ENABLE Funding programme, which aims to improve the supply of asset and lease finance to smaller UK businesses.

Simply was formed in April 2017 in response to the need for innovation and disruption in the asset finance sector. It has become the fastest-growing lessor and equipment finance company in the UK. It now employs over 100 people and has supported over 3500 customers since it was founded.

Launched in 2014, the ENABLE Funding programme supports the Bank’s objective to diversify finance markets for smaller UK businesses. Providers of finance to smaller businesses often lack the scale required to access capital markets – a key source of funding for lending institutions – in a cost-efficient manner. The ENABLE Funding programme warehouses newly-originated finance receivables from different originators – bringing them together into a new structure. Once the structure has sufficient scale, it will refinance a portion of its funding on the capital markets, also helping small finance providers to tap into institutional investors’ funds.

We are proud to work with the British Business Bank, helping to provide funding to as many businesses as we can. We have a commitment to bring positive change to the market and our customers. They need faster loan approvals, tailored solutions and long-term partnerships and support that will see them through good and not so good times, particularly in the current climate. With this fourth tranche of money, we are improving the supply of finance to UK firms and for critical requirements like hire purchases, finance leases and refinancing. - Mike Randall CEO of Simply
Smaller businesses in the UK are affected by a funding gap as many traditional providers provide cost efficient financing to only a relatively small percentage of firms. The British Business Bank developed the ENABLE Funding programme to bridge this gap by partnering with alternative and non-bank lenders, like Simply. The Bank remains committed to increasing the diversity of finance provision, and we look forward to continuing to work with Simply and other non-banks to help provide even more funding options to smaller businesses across the UK. - Reinald de Monchy Managing Director, Guarantee and Wholesale of the British Business Bank
We have worked with Simply since the very beginning. The company vision is simple – to lend money to entrepreneurs, family businesses and SMEs across the country to enable them to grow and prosper. And Simply does just that. The fourth round of British Business Bank funding will enable Simply to carry on doing what it does best – believing in the potential of customers and supporting them in anyway it can. - Richard McDougall Partner at Cabot Square Capital

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 100 of the best people in the industry and attracted more than 3500 customers across a variety sectors including manufacturing, construction, transport and recycling.

Simply is majority owned by a Cabot Square Capital fund. For more information 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 were supporting more than £7.7bn of finance to over 94,900 smaller businesses at end of December 2019. Since March 2020, the British Business Bank has launched four new Coronavirus business loan schemes, delivering tens of billions of pounds of finance to over a million businesses.

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 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 site also features case studies and lessons 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 through a number of subsidiaries, none of which are authorised or regulated by the FCA or the PRA.

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.

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