The independent SME finance provider — which currently offers asset-based lending, hire purchase and leasing, and commercial real estate lending products — intends to advance over €250m (approximately £221m) to Irish companies this year alone.

“We're going to lend about €250m this year,” confirmed Ronan Horgan, CEO at Capitalflow (pictured above), in an exclusive interview with Bridging & Commercial.

“We lent €150m [approximately £132m] last year, so we're continually expanding the operations and what we're offering.”

He explained that next year it was aiming to lend €350m.

“We'll also look at [whether] there [are] portfolios to purchase or if there [are] smaller businesses that we might acquire.

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“Lending €500m [per annum] in the next three years, I think, should be a realistic target for us.”

Ronan added that despite access to funding for SMEs being a “big issue” since the financial crisis, this problem has eased over the past 24–36 months.

“I think [SMEs in Ireland] now have a greater choice in a similar way to, say, the UK, Europe [and] America — there [are] far more independent finance providers now.

“I think the challenge for independents like Capitalflow is to make themselves relevant to SMEs.

“…The thing for me and the team here is that we don't want to be like every other provider out there, so we want to have a different type of approach and relationship with the SME.”

With regard to the potential addition of new products to Capitalflow’s range, Ronan stated that he’d expect to add another one, if not “two to three products”, over the next year or two.