Non-bank announces $20m equity raise

According to Lumi, the equity raise will be managed by KPMG Corporate Finance, while existing investors, including cornerstone investor the Josh Liberman Investment Group, will be participating in the raise.

The unsecured lender added that it would welcome the prospect of new financial and/or strategic investors.

Commenting on the equity raise, Lumi founder and CEO Yanir Yakutiel said that the equity raise forms part of the lender’s plan to proceed with its expansion strategy laid out at the start of 2020, despite the economic downturn resulting from the coronavirus crisis.

The equity raise will focus on expanding Lumi’s existing product lines and technology platform.

He added that while the coronavirus has impacted the Australian market, he felt that the time was right for Lumi to scale up its operations and invest further in its technology.

“This will take many industry observers by surprise, but the truth is that government support for our sector has really empowered technology-enabled leaders,” he said.

“Policies such as the government guarantee scheme and the support from the Australian Office of Financial Management have helped immensely to fill the funding gap that was caused by this crisis.”

Mr Yakutiel said that while the lender entered 2020 lean, it has plans to almost double its headcount over the next 12 months to enable its expansion.

As part of its expansion plans, the lender has appointed Steve Lambert to its board of directors and chair of its risk committee.

He spent over 15 years in Westpac in various roles, before moving to the National Australia Bank, where he spent 20 years in various leadership and general manager roles, as well as executive general manager, corporate finance.

Among other roles, he was also executive director at Athena Financial.

Commenting on his appointment at Lumi, Mr Lambert said: “I am really excited to be working with such a dynamic team.”

“Having worked with several fintech start-ups, it is great to be involved with a group that has such a strong sense of purpose that is providing a very differentiated product to an underserved market segment.”

Lumi offers business loans from $5,000 to up to $250,000 for a single loan on flexible terms. It processes loan applications within 24 hours with a maximum loan term of 24 months.

The fintech lender recently released a new line of credit product after confirming that it was one of several non-bank lenders to participate in the federal government’s Coronavirus SME Guarantee Scheme.

The new product is available to business borrowers using the scheme as an unsecured product with a term of three years up to $200,000 and with the option to take a six-month repayment holiday, as well as to business borrowers more generally.

[Related: Banks should partner with fintechs on SME loans: Lumi]

Malavika Santhebennur is the features editor on the mortgages titles at Momentum Media.

Before joining the team in 2019, Malavika held roles with Money Management and Benchmark Media. She has been writing about financial services for the past six years.