Linked Finance Issues Record €11.3m Loans in First Quarter

Linked Finance is on track for record growth this year, having delivered the strongest quarter in the platform’s 6-year history.

Q1 2019 saw the platform provide more €11.3M in loans to Irish SMEs. This is a new record and represents a growth of 32% on Q1 2018.

Since its establishment in 2013, Linked Finance has now helped provide more than 2,000 loans and €92M in funding to businesses across Ireland. Lenders who have supported SMEs through the platform have earned more than €7.1M in interest and received more than €50.4M in repaid principal since the business launched in 2013.

Now with in excess of 21,400 registered users and a number of large institutional investors on the platform, there is a strong appetite to support loans for Irish SMEs.

This means that loan requests are being funded in record time (the majority of loans funding instantly by way of the platform’s Autobid feature) and Linked Finance is attracting increasing numbers of large, well-established businesses with more sizeable funding requirements.

Linked Finance issued its largest loans ever in the quarter with a number of €300,000 loans provided. The average loan on Linked Finance during Q1 increased to €70,000.

Borrowers are attracted by the quick pace of decision making with the end-to-end process from initial application, to receipt of funding taking as little as 24 hours.

Lenders on Linked Finance have a well-diversified portfolio of companies they support, containing on average 55 loans, and typically earn annualised returns of between 7.5 and 8.5%.

Examples of SMEs supported during the quarter include Meath-based coffee distributor, Coffee Perfection, Limerick dairy producer, Clorane Farm, and leading organisational safety consultancy, SeaChange who raised €105,000 in just 1 second.

Commenting on the performance, Niall Dorrian, CEO, Linked Finance:

“We’re very pleased to see that the impressive growth achieved in 2018 has continued into a new year with another record quarter.

Despite the prevailing uncertainty around Brexit, we’ve continued growing and it clearly demonstrates that our commitment to providing the fastest, most efficient option for business loans in the market is helping us to attract increasing numbers of Irish companies to the platform.

The strong appetite among lenders, who have now earned more than €7 million in interest, means that we can now provide larger loans, faster than ever before and this is attracting bigger businesses with more significant funding requirements.

Notable companies that have raised funding with Linked Finance in the past include Viking Splash Tours, The Rolling Donut, Lolly & Cooks, Murphy’s Ice Cream, Iconic Offices and the Irish Fairy Door Company.