ABF Says P2P Loans Top Match, but Traditional Funding Lines Still Popular

As Alternative Business Funding (ABF) launches its commercial model, it has released data finding that shows P2P term loans received the most matches to an SME, but traditional funding methods made up 73 percent of all funding matches, with traditional asset finance ranked second, and invoice finance third.

The data is sourced from over 20,000 visits to the portal.

The ABF portal now includes 90 percent of UK’s P2P funders, which have collectively lent in excess of £2 billion directly to thousands of small businesses. In terms of positive outcomes on ABF, Pension-led funding achieved a 50 percent conversion rate - far ahead of the next best - the asset finance providers who converted almost 16 percent of leads.

The new ABF model

The new ABF commercial model, released as ABF 1.3, will allow funders to turn rejects into revenue for the first time. It will also provide more detailed augmented data to funders on the footprint of potential customers, and their needs and requirements. An accelerated marketing campaign, which includes a number of collaborations with leading affinity groups, will also provide funders on the portal with increased exposure to a wider SME audience.

ABF has continued to grow strongly over the last 12 months, with a total of 82 funders on the portal and a further 10 waiting to join. SMEs have been directed to ABF by other funders on the site, via referrals from Santander, and from commercial finance brokers, affinity groups and accountants. To date, ABF estimates that over 2,500 SMEs have successfully found funding through the portal, and with the new marketing drive, this is expected to increase markedly over the next twelve months.

Adam Tavener, Chairman of Alternative Business Funding (ABF), said “The analytics from over 20,000 visits shows that the demise of the traditional funder is just not happening, and with ABF’s new commercial model in place, we will see even more collaboration among funders - leading to more successful outcomes.

“The combination of alternative and traditional funding lines delivers a diverse range of SME funding choices in one online marketplace - where there is plenty of opportunity for both to do well.”

About

ABF provides a free and easy way for SMEs to find alternative business funding.  It aims to make it simple for time-constrained business owners to contact the right funder, by answering only a few simple questions.

The site brings together the market-leaders for the main forms of alternative business funding, so all types of funding from short to long-term loans, invoice trading, to peer-to-peer, trade finance, and Pension-led funding.