Intesa Sanpaolo and iwoca have teamed up to provide SMEs with credit products to bridge the funding gap and support growth .
The partnership will look to support the Italian banking group's SME clients.
The alliance will leverage iwoca's SME lending platform and Intesa's expertise in building banking operation across Italy, central Europe, eastern Europe, the Middle East and north Africa.
The announcement comes after the SME lending platform secured investment from Neva Finventures, Intesa's fintech venture capital arm.
“To date, iwoca has been able to support over 10,000 small businesses with operations across the UK and mainland Europe,' said Christoph Rieche, co-founder and CEO of iwoca.
“We are excited that Intesa Sanpaolo recognised the value of the technology we've built and will use it as part of their SME lending operations in the future.
“Partnering with Neva Finventures and Intesa Sanpaolo is an exciting opportunity to leverage our SME lending technology platform across new credit products and regions, while working with one of the most forward-thinking and expansive banking groups in Europe.'
iwoca has currently lent over ?£200m across 28,000 transactions since launching in 2012 and has supported over 10,000 businesses across the UK, Poland, Spain and Germany.
Maurizio Montagnese, chief innovation officer at the Intesa Sanpaolo Group, added: "Investing in iwoca is of strategic importance to us in that it strengthens the Intesa Sanpaolo Group's position in the area of new business models, and specifically in highly innovative digital financial services.
“The industrial synergies between iwoca and Intesa Sanpaolo could be significant in the coming years and allow the Intesa Sanpaolo Group to enter segments of the market not served by other banks."
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