Nucleus business loans break £1bn barrier

The small business lender said new products and upgraded technology drove lending.

Online lender Nucleus Commercial Finance said its lending to small businesses has broken through the £1 billion barrier.

The London-based firm saw its lending hit £282m last year, an 80 per cent jump on 2016, as it introduced new products and expanded the size of its loans.

Nucleus, founded in 2011, also said it completed its largest loan to date last year, a £16m asset based lending facility to a haulage firm, securing 800 jobs.

The business, which employs around 120 staff, also launched a portal specifically aimed at brokers last year. The firm’s loans range between £5,000 and £50m.

Chief executive Chirag Shah said: “Since 2011 we have worked hard to support UK small and medium sized enterprises, providing the financial products they need, when they need them.”

The firm recently extended its asset based lending facility up to £50m to service larger clients and has increased its average deal size by 50 per cent across its product lines over the past year.

Earlier this month, German small business lending platform Creditshelf said it had processed €1bn of loan requests since it was formed in 2014.