Barclays backs Liberis with £140m refinancing round

UK-based embedded business finance platform Liberis has secured £140 million in debt financing led by Barclays Bank, following the bank’s £34 million investment in the platform in December 2021.

The financing has also been provided by BCI Finance and will be used by Liberis to secure its global partner expansion and to scale the platform.

Sean White, MD of securitised products solutions at Barclays, said: “Barclays is excited to support Liberis with a new senior warehouse facility, which will allow the business to accelerate growth and continue to support smaller SME businesses with their funding needs.”

Liberis provides flexible finance solutions to SMEs through its global partner network, which comprises e-commerce platforms such as Klarna and acquirers such as Barclaycard, Worldpay from FIS, Clover, and Global Payments.

These partners integrate with Liberis to offer SMEs personalised revenue-based financing of up to £1 million.

To date, Liberis has funded almost $1 billion to over 21,000 SMEs across the UK, Europe, and the US.

The latest financing brings the total funds raised by Liberis to £350 million, including over £80 million in equity funding.

“This funding will be crucial to supporting our partners in funding their SME customers to close the ever-expanding global funding gap,” said Rob Straathof, CEO of Liberis.

Sam Kemp, managing director at BCI Finance, which has been partnered with Liberis since 2015, added: “Alternative finance providers such as Liberis, focused on reducing the barriers to accessing working capital, play a vital role in providing SMEs with the funding that they need to operate and grow.

“This is particularly important during periods of economic uncertainty, and we’re excited to be continuing to work with the Liberis team as they further extend their global reach.”

Liberis is also backed by other investors, including UK-based venture builder Blenheim Chalcot and US-based growth investor FTV Capital.