Yorkshire corporate duo secure £30m to launch new SME lender

A new short to medium term loan fund to provide capital to SMEs has been launched.

With offices in Leeds and London, Fresh Thinking Capital now has funds of £30m on deposit for immediate secured lending to businesses.

The  secured lending business, has been established by well-known Yorkshire corporate financiers Melanie Hird and Andrew Walls – who were the  founders of Seneca in Yorkshire.  The firm will offer secured lending loans of between £100,000 and £2m to help small and medium sized businesses looking for finance quickly.

“There is still a gap in the lending market to SMEs here and across the UK, and the first fund we have established has given us £30m to lend immediately to these businesses,” said Hird.

“We know that good businesses often have urgent lending needs and quite often an opportunity arises, such as winning a new contract or acquiring a business or asset, but the slow speed at which funding can traditionally be raised results in the opportunity being missed. The level of governance and red tape in place in financial institutions means it is impossible for many lenders to move quickly and this is hindering the growth of businesses.”

The duo has the backing of a private investor, and, so far, has secured deposits of £30m initially for five years with a view to deploying further funds.

Hird explained that the attraction of working with a like-minded investor was a perfect fit for the business and allows a flexible approach to be taken.

The firm is initially launching loans secured against assets, including property both inside and outside of the business, that can be signed off by Hird and Walls and drawn down to clients within five working days of the initial meeting.

Walls added: “We are already working with other lenders including banks, ABLs and equity funders to bridge gaps to ensure refinances and transactions complete. We are encouraged following a number of discussions we have already had with banks and management teams who see the benefit of utilising short-term funding to be able to take advantage of opportunities which can be refinanced in a more normal timetable in due course.”

Hird adds: “We have invested in laying the foundations for this business properly, with the right systems and processes to scale up to be a national network of offices very rapidly.  Unlike many loan funds, we don’t have to keep ‘going back to the well’ and pitching to our backers for each deal as we have the full value of the fund on deposit to lend to deals that meet the criteria.

“As a result we have already seen interest from a number of financiers keen to get involved and establish our network of regional offices, and we fully anticipate significant growth this year and the opening of more offices.”

Fresh Thinking Capital’s Thorpe Park, Leeds, offices will be its headquarters and, together with the London office, and the duo plan to build a network of five offices nationally within two years.