Christoph Rieche

iwoca's OpenLending to serve two million SMEs by 2023




Business lender iwoca has announced OpenLending, which aims to unify fintechs and banks as well as extend its lending to more than two million UK SMEs by 2023.

The platform — which allows fintechs, banks, brokers, accountants and bookkeeping platforms to customise their offering of iwoca loans — has already integrated 14 partners.

OpenLending also allows partners such as Monese, Funding Options and Funding Xchange to tailor the user experience for their customers.

“The concept of OpenLending has the potential — through collaboration with the banks and fintech partners – to fix some of the biggest problems SMEs will face in the coming months.” said Christoph Rieche, co-founder and CEO at iwoca (pictured above).

“OpenLending is a fully digital platform that established banks can use to get finance to small businesses within minutes, [as] opposed to weeks or even months.

“Digital access to finance is particularly valuable now where Covid-19 may lead to severe disruption of bank branch networks and call centres, reducing their ability to provide the service level that they aim for under normal circumstances.

“Now is the time to come together and work collaboratively to solve this problem.”

Atul Choudrie, chief commercial officer at Monese, added that the integration of OpenLending would enable the company’s small business customers to gain the “very best access to funding”.

“It’s important that we partner with a leader in the SME lending space and give our customers the very best tools to control their finances and manage important cash flow gaps.

“We started Monese with a goal to provide businesses with financial freedom anywhere and everywhere, and I believe OpenLending will help us do that.”

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