Interview: alternative lender Simply Asset Finance eyeing potential of Scots SMEs

It was set up as an alternative source of lifeline finance for businesses – and now London-based Simply Asset Finance is looking to build on its progress to date in Scotland as it jostles for space alongside peers.

The firm in fact expects to see its growth north of the Border outpace its UK-wide performance, according to William Devine, its head of Scotland. “It's a huge, huge growth area for us,” he tells The Scotsman alongside chief executive Mike Randall.

The lender premiered in April 2017 to address a perceived need for innovation and disruption in its field and has been “blessed to be the fastest-growing independent finance company in the UK”, having to date lent more than £1.3 billion to in excess of 7,500 customers, says Randall.

Broadly speaking it has provided sums north of £25,000 up to £5 million, and says it is able to make lending decisions and indeed provide capital super quickly driven by its use of tech. One Scottish deal was supplying £130,000 to enable Edinburgh taxi firm Capital Cars to buy two more electric Tesla Model X motors to bolster its green fleet of executive private hire vehicles.

Simply expects to see its growth north of the Border outpace its UK-wide performance, according to William Devine, the firm's head of Scotland. Picture: Vagelis Georgariou.

Randall formed Simply after more than two decades at Close Brothers and a decade at Bank of Scotland in the lenders’ asset finance teams, and then deciding that “it would be a great idea to start the next generation of finance company”. It has also since been ranked in the top 50 of a list of the 1,000 fastest-growing firms in Europe, although Randall says with amusement that it was pointed out to him that it was further down the list than adults-only “subscription social platform” OnlyFans.

Simply, which is majority-owned by a Cabot Square Capital fund, has also built up a network of UK-wide regional hubs including its Scottish base at Eurocentral just off the M8 that it opened in 2022, and which it says is handy for the transport and logistics sector that is a key part of its business, with relevant clients including Nairn-based Seafield Park Transport and Lanark’s Mackenzie Transport. “We literally lend money to Joe Bloggs who has one truck, to Eddie Stobart who has 3,000 trucks, to companies with one employee up to [about] 1000 employees,” says Randall.

Looking at its strategy more broadly, “We're real people, we lend real people real money in areas such as transport, construction, manufacturing, recycling, all those lovely businesses and industries. Our motto is that we believe in people's potential, and that we are here come rain or shine with our doors open in good times and bad times. That is why we fled the banking system, because Joe Bloggs, the normal SME, need a real person holding their hand whilst they make big decisions and employ people.”

He tells the story of an unnamed Scottish fifth-generation company that was banking with a high-street lender, and found itself following the outbreak of the pandemic asking it for help due to postponements of contracts and furloughing. “And they were told no. We were introduced to them, and literally took their debt off this bank and redid it. And all these years later, they didn't go bust. They're still trading, they've employed more people, they've won more business,” says Randall, who tells how the firm said they went from the fear of losing their family business to the relief of still being in the game.

Transport and logistics is a key sector for the business, which says it lends to firms with one truck as well as to others with thousands (file image). Picture: contributed.

And Devine says firms in Scotland often prefer to deal with a lender with local knowledge, and are keen to be able to access the personal service they used to enjoy from high-street peers. As for Simply’s unique approach to running the rule over prospective clients, he explains that rather than decide from afar it is “looking them in the eye, understanding their business, taking the time to sit down and understand all the nuances of everything that they do, which allows us then to commercially support them.”

Simply in Scotland tends to lend about £70,000 to £75,000 on average. However, it is not the only lender looking to provide funding injections deemed essential to foster Scottish SMEs. Reward Finance Group in August announced that it had provided more than £8m to this part of the market a year after launching in Scotland, amid “unprecedented” demand. That followed OakNorth Bank in July saying it believed it could in the following 18 months emulate or even exceed the almost £350m it has already lent to businesses in the region to date, while business tycoon Jim McColl's Scottish challenger bank Alba has been boosting its top brass ahead of its launch.

The British Business Bank recently officially cut the ribbon for its £150m Investment Fund for Scotland, and Edinburgh-based venture capital firm Par Equity has launched a £100m fund directed at tech businesses with “high-growth potential”.

Devine says Simply at present in Scotland has seven staff, around 400 customers, and a book size of roughly £50m, and in the next couple of years aims to grow these to ten to 12 salespeople in the ground, more than 1,000 clients, and at least £100m respectively. “The office that we have at Eurocentral's got the potential to expand there and give us a real solid footprint to grow and develop from over the next few years.”

The lender has been 'blessed to be the fastest-growing independent finance company in the UK', according to CEO Mike Randall. Picture: contributed.

Both he and Randall see that, some casualties and gloomy data withstanding, firms are buffeting themselves against constant economic slings and arrows. “The determination is there from them every day,” says the Scot. “And that's what we tap into, that gives us so much confidence when we're potentially going to support a business, that we can see that resilience coming from [its] ownership.”