SME Finance lands €100m from Fasanara Capital

The new cash extends an existing funding facility to €240m, helping the Lithuanian expand its SME lending in the Baltic region and Finland.

SME Finance, a lender to small businesses based in Lithuania, has agreed a new €100m credit facility with Fasanara Capital. 

Founded in 2016, SME Finance says it has already provided more than €1.3bn of loans and invoice financing through a combination of machine learning and open banking.

Fasanara has now committed €240m in credit to SME Finance, which will use the new cash to establish an EU-wide fintech marketplace for traditional business loans as well as new models of lending such as revenue-based financing and embedded finance.

“SMEs are a highly attractive credit market for major asset managers, like Fasanara, and we are excited to deepen our partnership. Our mission is to be the number one banking and finance partner for SMEs in Europe, and this extension of our credit facility will help us greatly in making finance accessible for every business,” said Mindaugas Mikalajūnas, CEO of SME Finance. 

“We believe strongly that this sector is one of the cornerstones of our economy, and there is a lot of demand right now for finance partners that speak the language of small and medium-sized business,” he added.

Francesco Filia, CEO of Fasanara Capital, which has made a string of funding deals in recent years, says the market has “huge potential, owing to “a highly-skilled labour force and innovative niches”. 

“It’s an area where Fasanara wants to increase exposure and, because many businesses there are still at an early stage of evolution, that means addressing the SME sector, he added.