A fintech lender has announced plans to raise $20m in capital to “turbocharge growth" and "aggressively expand” both its team and market awareness of the brand over the next 12 months.
The equity raise, which will be managed by KPMG Corporate Finance, will also help Lumi to evolve its existing product lines and further develop its technology platform.
Even with the significant impact COVID-19 has had on the Australian economy, there’s “never been a better time to be a fintech”, according to Lumi founder and CEO Yanir Yakutiel who went on to explain how the group has been able to stick to the expansion plans it laid out at the start of 2020.
“This will take many industry observers by surprise, but the truth is that government support for our sector has really empowered technology-enabled lenders,” he said.
Highlighting both the Coronavirus SME Guarantee Scheme – which Lumi participated in – and the support from the Australian Office of Financial Management, Yakutiel said the funding gap for SME lenders caused by the pandemic has been greatly eased.
“The role of technology-enabled lenders, such as Lumi, as a competitor and driver of innovation and change in the lending market is being increasingly recognised as vital to the overall health of our economy,” he added.
Currently, Lumi offers business loans ranging from $5,000 to $250,000 with a maximum loan term of 24 months and, due to the agility provided by its fintech status, is able to fulfill successful loan applications within 24 hours.
“Our focus now moves to building upon what makes Lumi so great: our technology and our team. Whilst we came into 2020 lean, we plan on almost doubling our headcount over the next 12 months to make our expansion possible.,” said Yakutiel.
The CEO also doubled down on the group’s commitment to its broker partners.
“Lumi has always had brokers at the heart of its distribution strategy – especially at a time like this, when many businesses are unsure as to what is the best way forward for them and how they should fund their working capital needs,” he said.
As part of the expansion plans, the lender has welcomed Steve Lambert to its board of directors as well as appointed him chair of its risk committee.
“Having worked with several fintech start-ups, it is great to be involved with a group that has such a strong sense of purpose that is providing a very differentiated product to an underserved market segment,” Lambert said.
“I am really excited to be working with such a dynamic team.”
