kennek, the London-based fintech that offers an operating system for lenders, today announces a $12.5m Seed raise, led by HV Capital and supported by Dutch Founders Fund, AlbionVC, FFVC, Plug & Play Ventures and Syndicate One.

kennek’s mission is to eliminate the complexity and inefficiency that has for years held back the huge non-bank lending sector. Until now, lenders have had to rely on Excel and a jumble of unconnected tools and data. This is costly, time-consuming, and fails to leverage high-potential recent innovations like Open Banking, Open Finance and Payments. kennek has turned this situation on its head with its vertical SaaS offering. The platform covers every aspect of lenders operations, from loan underwriting all the way through to monitoring & servicing, as well as investor reporting, leveraging the latest in the API technology to create a ‘single point of truth’ for lenders, borrowers and investors.

Having already achieved strong traction in the UK, the $12.5m raise will be used to double-down on kennek’s rapid growth in its home market and further deepen the platform’s functionality. kennek also plans to expand its geographic reach into continental Europe, following the recent signing of its first client there.

“Lenders are really just at the start of the digitalisation journey. kennek is here to help accelerate that journey and provide them with the tools to capitalise on the growth of the non-bank lending space.”, said Xavier De Pauw, Founder of kennek. “Until kennek, lenders had to devote countless hours to menial operational tasks and deal with jumbled and hard-coded data – which makes every other part of lending a headache. As former lenders ourselves, we lived and breathed these frustrations, and built kennek to make them a thing of the past.”

“One of the unique things about the kennek platform is that it can cater for all different types of B2B loans: bridge & development loans, SME term loans, R&D and grant advances… to name just a few. And we’re seeing strong demand across the board” added Thibault Lancksweert, Founder of kennek. “We’ve received some fantastic client feedback to date – my personal favourite was a lender saying that ‘the kennek platform is life changing’. We are excited to use this fundraise to further develop our offering, broaden our reach and get feedback like that from hundreds more lenders. This is just the beginning.”

“kennek has developed an ambitious and genuinely unique proposition which we think can be the foundation of the entire alternative lending space.” said Barbod Namini, Partner at HV Capital. “It is a complicated market and a solution that brings together all information and stakeholders onto a single platform is highly compelling for both lenders & the ecosystem as a whole.”

This raise comes amid a period of rapid growth in both the size and complexity of the private credit market. Ever-tighter regulatory capital requirements for banks are affecting their ability to lend to businesses, while borrower defaults are rising in the higher interest rate environment. This makes the management of loan portfolios and credit risk even more challenging – and the need for a solution like kennek even greater.

The funding round was oversubscribed and closed within 10 weeks of opening, quick even for the in-vogue alternative credit space. Existing investors followed on, with previous lead investor DFF doubling its investment in this latest raise.