The company is placing 22 million new ordinary shares at 45p each to raise £9.9m, along with an open offer for up to 6.9 million offer shares to raise up to £3.1m.

The proceeds of the fundraising will be used in part to fund the purchase of Tracx Finance Limited, owner of invoice lender Gener8 Finance Limited, amid plans to launch a new commercial division.

1pm has also reached heads of terms on the possible acquisition of another company in the invoice finance sector, with a targeted completion of June 2017.

These deals would be the latest in a string of acquisitions from 1pm after purchasing secured loans brokerage Intelligent Loans and asset finance lender Bell Finance in March and April respectively.

•   P2P lender acquires two specialist finance businesses
•   Close Brothers Group acquires specialist lender
•   Asset finance lender acquired

“The successful fundraising to fund both the acquisition of Tracx Finance and the possible second acquisition and the establishment of our new commercial finance division, together represent an important milestone in the ongoing development of the group,” said Ian Smith, CEO of 1pm (pictured above).

“[It] demonstrates the implementation of a key element of the group’s stated strategic plan.

“This is to continue to expand our offering to UK SMEs by adding adjacent financial products and services which are complementary to our existing asset finance and business loans portfolios and which also create significant cross-selling opportunities.”

1pm’s new commercial finance division will offer both invoice discounting and factoring.

Edward Rimmer, former chief executive of Bibby Financial Services in the UK, has been proposed as managing director of the commercial arm and chief executive of Gener8 Finance Limited on completion.

“1pm is well established and respected within the SME asset finance industry and I am relishing the opportunity to build the new commercial finance division,” added Edward.

“The division will help to significantly expand the group’s business both by pursuing a wider range of new customers with a more diversified suite of products and by maximising cross-selling opportunities across the group’s other two divisions.”