Atom bank awarded £10 million BCR grant to boost lending to SMEs
Atom bank, the U.K.’s first bank built exclusively for mobile, has today been awarded a £10 million grant to boost genuine competition in lending to SMEs. Atom will use the grant to help transform banking for small businesses and deliver an additional £3 billion of business financing by March 2024. Atom will also create 70 jobs in the North East of England.
The grant is one of four from Pool C of the £425m Capability and Innovation Fund (CIF), that forms part of a £775 million package administered by Banking Competition Remedies Ltd. Atom, which has already lent in excess of £200m to UK SMEs, will use the funding to address overlooked customer needs, deliver change and innovation and drive economic growth by supporting the bedrock of the UK economy – small businesses.
As part of the Public Commitments laid out in its BCR bid, Atom will launch a suite of Smart Lending products designed specifically with and for SMEs, underpinned by Atom’s unique smart contract technology and machine learning capabilities. When combined with advanced cashflow management, savings and financial health forecasting, the solution will provide small businesses with clarity on their financial health; reduce barriers when applying for finance and give them more confidence to focus on growth.
Demonstrating our commitment to small businesses, Atom will provide the service as a free-to-download and use application, available to all SMEs. Atom will make available an additional £3bn of funding and aims to attract in excess of 340,000 small businesses to its innovative solution by March 2024.
On top of the 348 roles Atom have already created in the North East of England, the BCR award will directly support the creation of 55 highly-skilled jobs, including engineering and data science roles, and a further 15 graduate and apprentice roles.
Chief Executive and co-founder of Atom bank, Mark Mullen said: “As a fast growing new entrant we know just how hard it is to get a business off the ground and we recognise that the needs of smaller businesses are different from those of larger firms.”
“We are delighted to receive this award and we will provide SMEs with a truly digital offering that allows them to get on with the day-to-day running of their businesses, giving value back to customers and bringing some much needed competition to the business banking market.”
The bank’s total lending, for homeowners and small businesses, has grown by 76% in the past year to £2.4bn, supported by growth in deposits from £1.4bn to £1.8bn. Right now, Atom is welcoming up to £20m of business and £10m of residential mortgage applications each week. To find out more visit their website at www.atombank.co.uk.