Shawbrook Bank has undertaken a new strategic relationship with alternative SME credit fintech, Caple.

It will significantly expand Caple’s lending-as-a-service offer, which provides banks and institutional investors with a way to access and lend to larger SMEs.

Caple utilises a network of advisory firms and a technology-enabled engagement model that serves to standardise and streamline the lending process for these larger firms.

For Shawbrook, Caple will complement its existing corporate lending business which already serves mid-market SMEs with cashflow loans and ABL facilities for a wide variety of commercial purposes including MBOs, investing for growth, re-finance and acquisitions.

Working with Shawbrook to develop a new cashflow loan proposition focused on Management Buy-Ins, Caple will source new lending opportunities (£1m – £10m) from larger SMEs through its network of accountants and corporate finance advisors. Utilising its credit platform,

Caple will assess suitable loans and provide in-depth credit analysis to deliver complete and standardised loan files to Shawbrook Bank, which will make the decision on the loan.

Shawbrook is the second lender with whom Caple provides lending-as-a-service, following its strategic alliance with BNP Paribas Asset Management launched in 2019.

Neil Rudge, managing director of business finance at Shawbrook Bank, said: “These established businesses, generating significant income and employing huge numbers of people in every sector and region across the UK, are extraordinarily diverse and their funding needs can often be complex.

“Shawbrook already provides a broad range of specialist funding products to address many of these needs, and working with Caple we can effectively and efficiently deploy capital to even more.”

Dominic Buch, co-founder and managing partner at Caple, added: “As our strategic relationship with Shawbrook shows, we are both completely aligned in our purpose to close the ‘missing middle’ funding gap. Despite being small in number, missing middle firms make a disproportionate contribution to the economy, employing 3.5m people and turning over £639bn combined.

“The private sector must find economic ways of supporting them. Working with Shawbrook, we intend to play our part in doing just that.”