AltFi Down Under - ThinCats Australia Profile

Sunil Aranha, CEO of ThinCats Australia, has over 25 years of experience in finance and business, all of which equips him well in his latest enterprise – ThinCats Australia, a marketplace lending platform for funding SMEs. Having experienced the challenges of running a small business first hand, Sunil is passionate about closing the gap that exists between the funding needs of SMEs and the provision of finance for SMEs by banks.

ThinCats Australia launched in early December 2014 and closed its first deal around three weeks later. It currently has just under 100 lenders registered. Typical borrower rates will be 11 to 18% with net lender returns targeted at 11.5%. Default rates are expected to be between 2 and 2.5% and typical loan size will be A$100k initially growing to A$250k over time.  The platform is targeting A$7.5m to A$10m of lending in 2015.

The Australian version of ThinCats employs new technology developed by the team behind rebuildingsociety. The model, however, is very similar to that pioneered and refined by ThinCats in the UK – what Sunil describes as “Good old fashioned relationship banking”. The platform is currently only open to sophisticated investors and there are no plans at present to apply for approval to extend that reach.

To learn more about the Australian AltFi market, check out our roundup here.