Lovey is pleased to announce a £250 million senior secured credit facility with Pollen Street Capital. Made up of £50 million in committed capital and a £200 million accordion, it is the largest funding facility in Lovey's history and marks a key milestone in the company's growth.
The facility will give Lovey greater capacity to lend to UK small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) from its own balance sheet. Lovey will also continue to grow its established brokerage service, which matches businesses with a wider panel of funding partners.
The £250 million facility is a senior secured credit facility with Pollen Street Capital, an alternative asset manager. It comprises £50 million in committed capital and a £200 million accordion.
The facility demonstrates continued institutional investor confidence in Lovey's lending model, technology and long-term strategy. It will support the growth of Lovey's own-book lending operation while the business continues to develop its brokerage proposition.
Pollen Street is a private capital asset manager founded in 2013. It manages over €9bn across private equity and credit strategies and has financed several specialist SME lenders.
Ashurst Perkins Coie advised Lovey, and Simmons & Simmons advised Pollen Street.
Jack Smith founded Lovey in Birmingham in 2016 as a one-person start-up. Lovey is now a bootstrapped business with a team of over 120. It has funded more than £600 million in loans to over 11,000 UK SMEs.
Read more about Lovey's story and team
Lovey started as a broker. In 2022, it began lending directly from its own balance sheet, using its experience as a broker to understand what UK SMEs need from funding. Today, businesses can access both Lovey's own lending and a wider panel of funding partners.
The new facility builds on Lovey's existing funding arrangements, including a £35 million revolving credit facility from Paragon Bank and a £10 million junior medium-term note programme from LGB Capital Markets.
EY, Deloitte, The Sunday Times, the Financial Times, UK Growth Index, FEBE and Sifted have all recognised Lovey as one of the UK's fastest-growing companies.
What did Lovey and Pollen Street say about the deal?
Jack Smith, Founder and CEO at Lovey, said:
"This new facility is an important milestone for us and will enable us to put more capital behind UK small businesses, scale our own-book lending and give more SMEs access to finance when they need it. Pollen Street shares our belief that finances for small businesses should be simpler, faster and more flexible, and we're really pleased to have them backing Lovey for this next stage of growth.”
Pollen Street shares our belief that finances for small businesses should be simpler, faster and more flexible, and we're really pleased to have them backing Lovey for this next stage of growth. A big thank you to Pollen Street for trusting us and joining us on the journey."
Kai Hunter, Chief Operating Officer at Lovey, said:
"The funding announced today is the result of close and collaborative work with Pollen Street and I am grateful to their team, and to our own, for the diligence they brought to it. This funding deepens our lending capacity and allows us to offer larger loans, so that we can back more of the UK's small and medium-sized businesses, from those that have found finance hardest to secure to the well-established, with greater speed and certainty.”
Ethan Saggu, Investment Director at Pollen Street, said:
"Lovey has spent almost a decade seeing the UK SME lending market from a broker's perspective, giving the team an expert view of where demand for credit is going unmet. We have financed a number of specialist SME lenders and recognise what it takes to grow from brokerage into balance-sheet lending. Lovey has done so with a well-defined product and a focused approach, and we look forward to supporting the team as it scales."
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