OakNorth Raises $440 Million, Will Expand into North America

OakNorth, a financial technology company based in London, announced on Friday that it has raised $440 million from SoftBank and the Clermont Group. The new funding will be used by the firm to expand its operations to the USA.

“OakNorth is delivering a highly differentiated service to a key segment of the market that has historically been underserved by commercial banks,” said Munish Varma, Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers. “The company has a clear and ambitious vision to scale globally and we are excited to work with them to achieve this goal.”

Founded in 2015, OakNorth provides loans to small-to-medium enterprises via a digital platform which, the company says, streamline the lending process.

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The bulk of the $440 million raised appears to have come from SoftBank. According to CNBC, $390 million was contributed from the Japanese firm’s Vision Fund - a $100 billion fund that the bank is using to invest in technology.

The new round of fundraising means that OakNorth is now valued at approximately $2.8 billion. It also means the firm has raised over $1 billion, making it the most well-funded financial technology company in Europe.

“We are excited to have another strong investor on board,” said OakNorth Co-Founder Rishi Khosla. “With this finance from SoftBank and follow-on investment from Clermont, we will be able to continue scaling the group’s operations globally.”

According to a statement issued by OakNorth on Friday, the firm has provided $3.7 billion in loans to SMEs in the UK since launching in 2015. The company said that their lending activities have created 11,000 new jobs and led to 9,000 homes being built. OakNorth also said that none of their customers have defaulted or made a late payment.