Online finance portal smartfundit.com has secured £3.5 million
(€3.8 million) of funding from BayTech Venture Capital.
Justin Floyd, smartfundit.com’s chief executive officer, said he
expects up to three more rounds of venture capital funding before
the company’s initial public offering, which is expected within the
next three years.
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Smartfundit.com will use the funding to grow its business,
particularly in the European markets, where it will be able to
leverage the expertise of German-based BayTech.
The company will also use BayTech’s knowledge for a number of
targeted acquisitions, which Floyd said are currently under
consideration.
“We are looking at either the acquisition of companies as a
whole, specifically in the broker market; or to buy portfolios from
a couple of major leasing companies,” Floyd said.
BayTech has taken an undisclosed percentage shareholding of the
platform. Jude Ngu’Ewodo, a partner at BayTech, has also been
appointed to smartfundit.com’s board of directors.
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By GlobalDataDiscussions with three potential funders started only five
months ago, and smartfundit.com selected BayTech not only for its
proximity to the German market, but also because of its good track
record of investment in other web platform companies.
In the first nine months of 2008, smartfundit.com recorded a 69
percent growth by value, and 73 percent by volume of new
finance.
Floyd said that his company’s platform, which sees an average
deal size of £65,000 (€74,000), has an 80 percent acceptance rate.
Last month, smartfundit.com recorded its largest transaction for
technology worth over £1 million with Harrods.
