Australia SME lender Judo raises $147m

Participants in the latest round have not been specified. It follows a A$400 million round last year that was said to be the largest private investment in a local start-up to date. That round featured Ironbridge Capital, OPTrust, Abu Dhabi Capital, SPF Investment, Myer, and Bain Capital Credit.

The company, founded as Judo Capital in 2018 by a group of former executives at National Australia Bank, was seeded with A$140 million by Ironbridge, OPTrust, Myer, and Abu Dhabi Capital, alongside Zhong Yi Investment, Credit Suisse Asset Management, Inception Asset Management, and CH Warman Group.

Judo said it received a A$350 million debt facility from Citi earlier this year. This coincided with a A$500 million investment from the Australian government as part of its Coronavirus SME Guarantee Scheme, which aims to support local businesses struggling with shutdown conditions.

David Hornery, Judo’s CEO, attributed that the lack of new investors in the latest round to global economic uncertainty around COVID-19. 

“The support we’ve received for our third round, at an increased valuation to our second round capital raise last year, underscores the confidence and commitment our existing investors have in Judo, particularly at a time of extreme volatility in global markets, that has impacted all bank valuations,” he said in a statement.

Judo is considered the largest digital bank in Australia, providing a range of lending products for the local SME market via a cloud-based platform, including lines of credit, equipment loans, and home loans for business customers. The company operates out of bases in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane and claims to have facilitated around A$1 billion in SME loans as small as A$250,000.

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Financials
• Expansion
• Australia
• Ironbridge Capital
• OPTrust
• SME
• Financial Services