FinTech giant OakNorth has opened a new office in Manchester city centre.
The credit platform provides debt finance to SMEs and has raised more than $1 billion investment to date. It was recently announced in second place聽in 叠耻蝉颈苍别蝉蝉颁濒辞耻诲鈥檚 London Tech 50 ranking.
OakNorth has occupied a 3,238 sq ft space in Ship Canal House, King Street, which has capacity for 60 people.
In addition to new office space, the bank has hired a dedicated lending team based in Manchester, focused on SME lending deals in the North.
Ben Barbanel, head of debt finance, said: 鈥淥ne of the features about our process that our borrowers greatly appreciate is the ability to discuss their finance needs directly with the credit committee.
鈥淸The new hires] will ensure we can continue offering this experience and build strong relationships with businesses and property developers in the North.鈥�
OakNorth has lent almost 拢4bn to date.
鈥淲e continue to see incredible demand from British businesses keen to pursue their growth ambitions, and because most high-street banks have been retrenching from SME lending, this has only been compounded,鈥� added Barbanel.
鈥淥ur co-founder, Rishi Khosla, has always said that the best businesses thrive in times of economic turmoil.鈥�
The bank increased profits by 220 per cent last year to 拢33.9m.