Prospa first Australian fintech to deliver a half billion dollars of small business loans

Prospa, Australia’s number one online lender for small business, has announced the delivery of more than half a billion dollars into the economy, providing loans to over 12,000 small businesses across the country.

Now in its sixth year, Prospa has scaled rapidly, today placing second in the Fast 100 for 2017 thanks a 239 per cent average revenue growth since 2013-14. The AFR’s Fast 100 ranks the fastest growing companies in Australia, and in previous years has included the likes of Atlassian, Lonely Planet, SEEK and WebJet.

2017 has been been a bumper year for Prospa, having secured over $50m in equity and debt funding. The firm announced a $25m equity round led by AirTree and Square Peg in February (the largest deal of its kind in Australia at the time), which was followed by an additional $20m debt funding line from Silicon Valley-based Partners For Growth in July.

Over the past twelve months, the company has doubled the size of its loan book, and also grown its team by more than 50 per cent to 150 people from 33 countries. Recent key hires include Damon Pezaro ex Domain as Prospa’s first Chief Product Officer, and Rebecca James ex ME Bank, as Chief Marketing and Enterprise Officer.

Prospa also became the first fintech to win a Telstra Business Award, being named a New South Wales state winner in 2017, as well as being named Employer of Choice in the AON Hewitt Best Employers Program 2017.

Greg Moshal, co-founder and joint CEO of Prospa, comments, “For over five years, we’ve been transforming the way small business owners experience finance. Before Prospa, small business owners simply couldn’t access finance unless they had an asset to put up as security, and they certainly couldn’t do it in a fast easy way from the convenience of their own workplace. We’ve now provided over half a billion dollars in loans to small businesses, and there’s obviously a real need there. We’re now focusing on finding more ways to provide quick, easy access to capital: how, where and whenever it suits our customers.”

Beau Bertoli, co-founder and joint CEO of Prospa adds, “As we scale up, we’re taking a long term view on our growth plans. Awareness of fintech is at all time high, and the sector is at a tipping point in Australia. Regulatory uncertainty is being addressed through consultation and fast decision-making by Treasury, and we’re confident this will help kickstart the next wave of innovation and growth. We’re genuinely excited about the future.”

As a long term Prospa investor and Board member, Avi Eyal, Partner at UK-based Entrée Capital commented, “Prospa has had exceptional growth over the past four years, led by two of the best CEOs in tech today, Greg Moshal and Beau Bertoli. The team is world class and together they are the clear leaders in the Australian fintech market. We are proud to have Prospa in our portfolio.”

Danielle Szetho, CEO of FinTech Australia, commented: “We congratulate Prospa on this important achievement. Prospa’s incredible growth is a great reflection of our recent results from the EY FinTech Australia Census, which shows that fintech companies have tripled their median revenue since 2016, and that the industry overall is rapidly maturing.

This strong revenue growth is happening because fintech companies such as Prospa are providing new and innovative services that delight their customers, compared to the previous offerings from traditional financial services institutions.”