UK FinTech Bourn has announced a 拢3.5 funding round.
The fundraise includes a strategic investment by NatWest Group, alongside support from McPike Global Family Office, Haatch, Love Ventures, Portfolio Ventures and aperture.co.
The latest 拢3.5m fundraise follows a 拢1.5m seed funding round earlier this year, which was led by Haatch.
Bourn was founded in 2024 by Nick Tracey, Roger Vincent and Paul Gambrell to transform SME finance landscape with its flexible trade account (FTA)
Co-founder Roger Vincent said: 鈥淭his builds on a brilliant first year piloting our solution with Investec, all focused on reinventing the business overdraft for SMEs.
鈥淲hat’s super exciting is what this represents: two of the UK’s most respected banks backing a different, real problem-solving approach to flexible business finance.
鈥淔or the last 20 years, banks have been pulling away from business overdrafts.
鈥淭hey went from 30 per cent of SME working capital down to about 5 per cent.
鈥淎nd it鈥檚 understandable – unsecured lending is capital intensive, the fraud risk is real, and the operational overhead is significant.
鈥淏ut that left millions of businesses stuck between a rock and a hard place.
鈥淓ither go to your bank and get told 鈥榥o鈥�, or opt for an unsecured loan and pay through the nose, ultimately adding to the cash flow problem.
鈥淣either option was good enough and everything else seemed too complex or confusing – so we built something different.
鈥淣ow NatWest is coming on board to pilot the solution with their business customers. Given one in five businesses bank with NatWest, this partnership provides us the opportunity to make a real dent in the working capital gap and help UK businesses grow.鈥�
Vincent said Bourn鈥檚 approach was very different to other FinTechs.
鈥淏anks bring the balance sheet, and own the customer relationships,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ourn brings the technology, payments and channels.
鈥淲e call it 鈥榚mbedded FinTech鈥� and we’re just getting started.鈥�
Bourn鈥檚 CEO聽 Nick Tracey said: 鈥淲e continue to deliver on our mission to reinvent the overdraft for businesses and these funds will accelerate the scale-up of our flexible trade account in 2026.鈥�
Scott Marcar, chief information officer at NatWest Group, said: 鈥淭his investment reinforces our commitment to supporting innovative FinTechs to deliver the solutions businesses need to scale and succeed.鈥�