Iwoca lands £156M debt line to scale German SME lending
What's the deal? Digital lender iwoca has secured a £156 million (€185 million) credit line to fund SME loans in Germany. ABN AMRODealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → acts as senior lender, with Neuberger BermanDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → providing the mezzanine tranche. The facility lifts iwoca's German refinancing capacity above €560 million.
Why now? Iwoca says its German loan book more than doubled in the past year to nearly €400 million, serving close to 13,000 borrowers. The new line funds rising demand that, in general manager Fabian Platzen's words, "comes directly from our customers' daily operations."
By the numbers: At £156 million, the deal ranks in the 96th percentile of all UK debt rounds in its sector, among the largest on record. Iwoca, founded in 2012, has disbursed around €7 billion to SMEs across the UK and Germany.
What's the endgame? Iwoca aims to grow its German loan book to €1 billion by 2028 and serve 30,000 to 35,000 active customers. "Iwoca has established a compelling business model that serves an important gap in the German SME financing market," said Sachin Patel, managing director at Neuberger Berman.
The signal: The backing is a vote of confidence from institutional lenders in alternative credit as banks pull back. Germany's KfW reported a record 40.5% of SMEs seeking loans faced restrictive bank lending in Q2 2026 — a gap digital lenders like iwoca are moving to fill.
Read more: alternativecreditinvestor.com
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
