Lombard lending fintech Firenze has secured a £6m funding round led by AlbionVC, with follow-on participation from all major existing investors including Outward VC and Form Ventures.
A Lombard loan is a type of loan that is backed by liquid assets from an investment portfolio. Assets are used as collateral against the loan, protecting the creditor from risk.
Firenze’s embedded finance platform empowers wealth managers to offer cost-efficient lending solutions without clients needing to move or sell assets, meaning fast access to liquidity for borrowers – often in as little as 24 hours.
The new funding round will support Firenze in its ambitious growth plans, helping the company to accelerate the roll-out of its capabilities to more partners across a wider range of products, further enhance its SaaS offering for banks and launch into new jurisdictions.
Firenze also plans to more than double the size of its team to support increasing borrower requests and the growing population of wealth managers taking Lombard lending to their clients.
“Firenze has built the foundational infrastructure layer to power the next generation of collateralised credit products, starting with Lombard lending,” says Jay Wilson, partner at Albion VC.
“We’re proud to support the team as they scale. Lombard lending has been one of private banking’s most powerful tools, yet the vast majority of investors have had no access to it. Firenze is democratising this access, bringing Lombard lending to the mass affluent segment.”
The fresh funding comes 12 months after the company’s £2.5m seed round.
