October secures €35m to bring its SME V fund to €100m

The alternative lender is hoping to grant more than 3000 loans to European SMEs with the funds.

SME lending platform October has secured a €35m funding line from the European Investment Fund (EIF) and Dutch impact investor Invest-NL.

The French alternative lender has secured the money for its most recent debt fund for small businesses, SME V, with the expectation that it will be able to grant more than 3000 loans to European small businesses.

According to October, it is targeting a total of €400m in lending over the next two years, offering investors a “highly granular and diversified” portfolio across several EU countries (France, Spain, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands). 

“I’m glad that the EIF can again partner with October to support small and medium-sized companies with alternative financing,” European Investment Fund CEO Marjut Falkstedt said.

Part of the European Investment Bank Group, EIF’s commitment of €20m (on top of Invest-NL’s €15m) brings the SME V fund to €100m in total commitments following its launch last September.

EIF has previously invested in October SME II, III and IV.

The October SME V fund will have loans ranging from €10,000 to €2m with an expected average size of €130,000 and the fintech is hoping to attract additional public and private investors in the fund.

“With this investment, the EIF continues to support European SMEs via the October platform,” October CEO Patrick de Nonneville said.

“Key to this new fund is our data-driven ESG X-Ray module, to integrate ESG criteria in our investment process without burdening SMEs with additional paperwork.”