Stellar growth helps Moula close $20m capital raising

Private wealth management firm Escala Partners led a $20 million Series D funding round in Moula, enticed by the non-bank lender’s 124 per cent loan book growth in 2019 and its “conservative” approach to risk profiling.

The funding round, first flagged by The Australian Financial Review’s Street Talk column in August, took Moula’s overall raising to just under $50 million off the back of additional allocations by existing shareholders Liberty Financial and Acorn Capital.

“Moula has established itself as one of the most innovative lending platforms in Australia addressing finance needs for a significant proportion of SMEs,” Escala chief executive Pep Perry said.

“It has proven its ability to acquire good quality business customers in a cost-effective manner, while utilising its proprietary technology to assess risk.”

Moula co-founder Aris Allegos said proprietary technology formed the basis of his pitch to institutional investors.

“Investors want to see investment in tech de jour: machine learning, artificial intelligence and how sophisticated the underlying data models are,” Mr Allegos told the Financial Review.

The $20 million capital injection will see Moula double down on technology development and recruit engineers, product managers and sales staff in 2020, as the lender looks to continue its triple-digit growth after processing 20,000 loans and increasing its loan book by 124 per cent over the past year.

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Source: Stellar growth helps Moula close $20m capital raising