Former Assetz Capital founder launches fintech consultancy

Andrew Holgate founded Equitivo to help young firms ‘avoid mistakes’.

The co-founder of one of Europe’s largest peer-to-peer lenders has launched a fintech consultancy to help young firms “avoid some of the mistakes made by the early incumbents of the industry”.

Former Assetz Capital chief credit officer Andrew Holgate will lead a team of City veterans at consultancy Equitivo, which will help growing fintech firms raise cash, focus on strategy, trim operations and boost performance.

Holgate helped set up Manchester-based Assetz Capital in 2013, and since then it has lent over £600m to small and medium-sized businesses over this period, and currently has more than 100,000 registered private investors signed to its platform.  

Assetz Capital said the former banker left the lender with “immediate effect” to “pursue new external opportunities”, last September.

Equitivo, which has offices in London and Manchester, said it already has “substantial contracts with major UK and European fintech businesses”, adding that it plans to announce further contracts over the coming months.

Holgate said: “During my twenty years in banking, accountancy and running fintech businesses, I’ve continually been surprised at the lack of specialist advice available to them.”

He added that Eastern European markets have become an attractive area of growth for fintech firms.

He said: “We are seeing a real expansion of fintech businesses in markets across Europe, especially in the Eastern European and Baltic States. Equitivo aims to help platforms break into these lucrative markets by providing expert consultancy across all aspects of their business. Using our board’s collective experience, we will also help these platforms avoid some of the mistakes made by the early incumbents of the industry.”

Holgate added: “While there is a vast amount of capital available finding the right partner can be tricky and some platforms don’t have the experience to navigate the many pitfalls of fund-raising.”

Equitivo advisory board includes former investment banker Philip Toth, trained psychotherapist and 30-year City veteran Robert Dellner, and Jeff Jones, a qualified insolvency practitioner and entrepreneur.

Holgate has previously worked as business manager at NatWest, a risk manager at credit insurer Euler Hermes and held a number of roles at Royal Bank of Scotland.