Esme Loans, the standalone digital lending platform for SMEs and scale up businesses, has today announced that it has now lent over £70million to UK businesses.

The lender has seen a sustained period of rapid growth in lending to small businesses, with the most recent milestone representing over £20m of lending in the space of four months, an increase of 40% in the lender’s total loan book. At its current trajectory, the provider will have reached lending of £100m before Christmas.

Richard Kerton, CEO, Esme Loans said: “We’re pleased to have seen a sustained increase in customer interest and appetite during the summer months. Our digital process and fast approval times are resulting in UK SMEs increasingly choosing Esme Loans to help grow their business, and we’re making sure we repay their confidence in us by continuing to invest in our products, processes and technology.”

As part of its plans to continue its growth, Esme Loans announced earlier this year it had enlisted Microsoft to build a data warehouse and AI-assisted chatbot to help improve its customer experience. Its parent company NatWest also announced at the beginning of the year that it was to offer Esme Loans as part of its core product offering to Business Banking customers for the first time.