Future Finance Loan Corp, which makes student loans across the UK, raised 119 million pounds ($170.19 million) in growth and lending capital from QED Investors, Blackstone Strategic Opportunity Fund, Colchis Capital, Invus Opportunities, KCK, DW Partners, Fenway Summer Ventures, Ridge Road Partners, 1/0 Capital and others. Of the recent funds raised, 100 million pounds is for lending capital, supplementing Future Finance’s existing credit facility with Goldman Sachs.
PRESS RELEASE
14 March 2016
Future Finance Loan Corporation (“Future Finance”), Europe’s biggest student lender, which makes competitive tailored loans to undergraduates and postgraduates at universities across the UK, announces that it has raised £119 million in growth and lending capital from leading FinTech investors QED Investors, Blackstone Strategic Opportunity Fund, Colchis Capital, Invus Opportunities, KCK, DW Partners, Fenway Summer Ventures, Ridge Road Partners, 1/0 Capital and others. £100 million of the recent funds raised is for lending capital, supplementing the company’s existing credit facility with Goldman Sachs.
This new investment will enable Future Finance to make even more loans, ensuring that many more students have access to higher education in the UK, where data show that investment in higher education provides a good return for students and society.
Future Finance, the only company of its kind operating in the UK, offers loans to students studying a wide variety of courses at universities across the country, from nursing at Doncaster College to MBAs at London Business School, to cover tuition fees and living expenses. Future Finance is facilitating access to higher education through its proprietary lending platform, which factors granular data such as continuation, employability and earnings into its lending decisions. This enables students who need additional financial support, on top of government loans and bursaries, to invest in their future careers.
Many students are unable to get a loan from a bank because of a lack of credit history and turn to high cost forms of short-term finance, such as credit cards and payday loans. Future Finance provides a competitive funding option for students who face a funding gap (approximately £8,000 per student per year) and is experiencing high demand for its loans. Since May 2014 Future Finance has received over 37,000 applications (i.e. from 1.5 per cent of the UK’s student population) and has lent nearly £25 million, with loan growth in excess of 900 per cent year-on-year. Future Finance has 33 partnerships with universities across the UK, which enable it to offer even more competitive loans to these students.
Brian Norton, Chief Executive of Future Finance, commented:
“We are excited about this significant investment from a world-class set of investors, which will enable many more students in the UK to access higher education and invest in their future careers. Our investors share our view that students with the motivation and the potential to succeed should not be denied a productive education. We are delighted to have the support of such experienced investors in high-growth FinTech companies like Future Finance whose insights will be invaluable as we look to expand into new products and geographies.”
Nigel Morris, Managing Partner of QED Investors, added: “Future Finance’s use of technology and data to democratize higher education is a huge win for students and society. We are very impressed with Brian and his team and see enormous potential for the business in what is still a nascent market for student finance in the UK. We are delighted to support Brian and his team to take Future Finance to its next stage of growth.”
About Future Finance
Future Finance, Europe’s biggest student lender, provides competitive tailored loans to students in the UK and Germany whose government loans and bursaries are not enough to cover the cost of higher education. Future Finance is facilitating access to education through its proprietary lending platform, which factors granular data on continuation, employability and earnings into its lending decisions, enabling it to lend to students who in many cases would not be able to obtain loans from banks.
Future Finance provides loans to undergraduates and postgraduates of between £2,500 and £40,000 each academic year to help them pay for tuition costs and living expenses. Loan periods are for ten years after graduation although borrowers can settle early at any time, with no early repayment charges, and reduce the amount of interest that they pay overall. Loans include up to four payment holidays of three months, which provide students with flexibility as they establish their careers.
Future Finance is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. www.futurefinance.com
QED Investors
QED Investors is a direct investment fund focused on high growth companies that leverage the power of data strategies. While our support is tailored to the specific needs of each portfolio company, we typically provide a combination of both capital and capability. With operationally-oriented skills that we believe are both fundamentally applicable and broadly transferable, we enjoy working closely with a small set of carefully selected companies that range in size and style. But common to all of our partnerships is a shared conviction that information plays a decisive role in the success of the company, a mutual desire for a high degree of direct engagement, and a shared enthusiasm for experimentation and learning. Investments by QED Investors include Zopa, the UK’s leading peer-to-peer lending service, Prosper, America’s first peer-to-peer marketplace and SoFi, a leading peer-to-peer marketplace serving the student loan industry.
www.qedinvestors.com
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