South: OakNorth achieves Leap 100 status of fast-growth businesses
OakNorth has announced it has made The Leap 100 2017 – a community of the most exciting, fast-growth companies in the UK – launched by London law firm Mishcon de Reya and business publication City AM and nominated in partnership with Seven Hills and The Entrepreneurs Network.
To be considered for The Leap 100, companies needed to demonstrate a recent history of rapid revenue growth, as well as ambitious plans for the future. The lender was recently named as one of 17 UK fintech businesses that could reach a $1 billion valuation in the future, and several of its clients, including naturally fast-food chain, LEON, have featured on the list in the past.
Launched in September 2015, OakNorth – which in August 2016 become the first completely new bank in the UK to achieve profitability less than one year after launching – provides fast, flexible and accessible debt finance to fast-growth businesses. In the past two years, the bank has: secured the third new banking licence in the UK for 150 years (March 2015); secured a £66m investment from Indiabulls (November 2015); become the first UK bank to have its core systems fully-hosted on the cloud (May 2016); broken even and started making a profit (August 2016); grown its loan book to £450m; and raised over £280m in retail deposits from more than 7,000 savers. The loans it has provided have directly contributed to the creation of over 3,000 new jobs and 2,000 new homes in the UK, and it has helped over 100 business owners achieve their growth ambitions.
Rishi Khosla, CEO and co-founder of OakNorth, commented: “This is a huge achievement for OakNorth and wonderful recognition for all that we have achieved so far. We set out to shake up the UK lending sector and after just 18 months in the market, we have already proven our proposition and begun to give larger lenders a run for their money. Many of the fast-growth businesses we have lent to have featured on the list in the past, so it’s really exciting to be joining them and we look forward to meeting the other 99 companies throughout the year.”
For the third year running, The Leap 100 will support entrepreneurs as they experience the highs and lows of fast growth, bringing together founders and business leaders to share their ideas and experiences. Click here for the full 2017/18 list, which is neither ranked nor exhaustive.
