Honeycomb fund makes new equity investment in lending platform

The new equity stake is the fund’s fourth equity investment made by its manager Pollen Street Capital.

The £454m Honeycomb investment trust has joined the Round C fundraising for a new lending platform provider ezbob. The company is a software provider for banks and other financial institutions with current clients including Esme Loans and Clydesdale Yorkshire Bank.

Lindsey McMurray, Managing Partner of Pollen Street Capital, has joined the board of ezbob following the fund raising.

Analysts at Liberum say ezbob is the fourth equity investment made by Honeycomb, following investments in Pay4Later, Freedom Finance and Hiber.

“The size of the investment has not been disclosed but we would expect it to be relatively small in the context of the overall vehicle. The total investment across the other three equity positions is £7.7m, equivalent to 1.9 per cent of NAV (maximum limit of 10 per cent)," Liberum said.

While the portfofolio has seen some cash drag in recent months, its manager Pollen Street Capital gave a recent upbeat assesment for future deals.

“The pipeline remains strong with a number of new opportunities expected to close in June which will utilise the cash balances. The Company has committed debt facilities in place of £150m plus an ability to upsize with the expectation of increasing the debt to equity ratio towards the target,” Pollen Street said in an market update.

Honeycomb trades on a 10.4 per cent premium to net asset value (NAV).