Borro raises £4m fund via crowdfunding

Borro raises £4m fund via crowdfunding




Luxury asset-backed lender Borro has raised £13 million of funding, £4 million of which was financed through a crowdfunding platform.

Luxury asset-backed lender Borro has raised £13 million of funding to help continue its rapid growth across the UK and US.

The funding was led by crowdfunding platform, OurCrowd, which invested £4 million, as well as internet platform, Rocket Internet, which increased its stake in Borro to 10 per cent.

Canaan Partners, Eden Ventures and Augmentum Capital also participated in the funding round, where founder and CEO of Borro, Paul Aitken, said this will enable it to accelerate their growth.

“This funding will enable us to accelerate our growth in our core US and UK businesses,” said Paul.

“We will continue to grow through our already successful partnership channels, as well as our expansion into new product areas.”

Borro is a leader in the alternative lending sector, which is one of the fastest growing segments of the financial technology market, where it offers loans to individuals, entrepreneurs and business owners who can use luxury assets as collateral for loans.

CEO of OurCrowd, Jon Medved, said: “In less than two years, OurCrowd went from participating in early seed rounds, to now leading a £13 million funding round together with global venture capital firms such as Canaan and renowned internet company, Rocket Internet,”.

“Working with Borro marks the single largest equity crowdfunding round ever completed and demonstrates how equity crowdfunding can complement traditional funding sources.  

“We are thrilled to be investing in quality companies like Borro that are redefining the FinTech industry.”

CEO of Rocket Internet, Oliver Samwer, believes that Financial Technology is one of the most attractive and fastest growing online sectors and is a key sector for them.

“The financial services sector is ready for major disruption by innovative online companies,” said Oliver.

“Borro is clearly one of them, and with our investment, we underline our belief in the company’s highly promising development and expansion potential.”

In 2014, Borro raised £74 million of debt from Victory Park Capital to expand its pool of capital to lend to clients, where this round pushes the total capital raised to over £130 million.

This funding will fuel Borro’s long term growth and aims to significantly increase its lending volume over the next couple of years.

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