Recognise Bank secures £8.7m capital raise

Digital SME banking startup and lender Recognise Bank has now raised £8.7m in new capital.

This means that to date, the bank’s parent company City of London Group has raised almost £65m in investment in part of its mission to create a new business bank for UK SMEs.

The investment comes from two of the company’s existing shareholders, PV27 and property firm Max Barney Invesment Limited, both of which are exercising warrants received during the last fund raise in August 2021.

A few months ago Recognise hit £100m in lending, from a pipeline of £1bn worth of applications, just six months after receiving its full authorisation by the Prudential Regulation Authority in September last year.

The challenger bank provides SMEs with “digitally enabled relationship-led banking” and a range of unregulated lending options through a network of relationship managers across the UK.

Its saving deposits have also reached £95m, through a combination of personal savings and business savings accounts, the latter of which launched in April.

“Recognise Bank has already made its mark in the business banking sector by hitting the challenging lending target we set, proving there is demand amongst the UK’s SMEs for our mix of relationship banking, supported by cutting edge technology,” Recognise Bank CEO Bryce Glover said.

The capital will be used to support continued business lending, alongside the creation of a new team that will accelerate the challenger bank’s digital innovation.

This is set to include new products and revenue streams, which will be bolstered by new hires.

“We have consistently delivered on time and in line with our strategy to create a new bank for Britain’s growing businesses, firms that are the lifeblood of our economy, but are consistently ignored and let down by the mainstream banks,” City of London Group chairman Phil Jenks said.