Esme Loans, the digital lending platform for SMEs and scale up businesses, today announced that it has entered into a partnership with Pollen Street Capital, a London-based private equity and credit manager, further enhancing Esme’s ability to serve UK SMEs.

The partnership, through Pollen Street’s Honeycomb Investment Fund, will accelerate and expand Esme’s product offering, whilst helping Esme to achieve its strategic growth ambitions.

Esme Loans was launched in 2017 by NatWest as part of the bank’s commitment to investing in innovation and technology to become a faster, easier and simpler bank that’s service-led and customer-focused. Lead by the original founding team – Rickard Kerton, Veronika Lovett and Lucy Hasson -  Esme Loans offers UK-based SME customers a simplified, rapid and paperless end-to-end process with competitive rates for businesses looking to borrow up to £150,000.

Richard Kerton, CEO of Esme Loans, stated, “We are very excited to form this partnership with Pollen Street Capital which gives Esme the opportunity to increase its support to the SME community. Through this strategic partnership, we are able to accelerate the growth of the portfolio whilst providing a wider range of financing options to small businesses across the UK.”

Matthew Potter, Partner at Pollen Street Capital, said, “Pollen Street aims to partner with innovative businesses, who target underserved market opportunities with strong customer propositions. Esme has demonstrated an innovative approach which seeks to combine modern technology with a long heritage in SME lending. We look forward to working together to build a successful partnership.”