Barclays has provided a £1m loan to Manchester-based fintech firm AccessPay to help it explore further growth opportunities.
Access Systems offers a cloud based connectivity layer between a business’s finance systems, their banks and all of the major UK and international payment networks such as BACS, SWIFT, SEPA, Faster Payments & Direct Debit.
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This deal follows Barclays’ agreement with The European Investment Fund (EIF) to finance lending to innovative small and SMEs and small mid-caps in the UK.
AccessPay is the first Manchester firm to benefit from Barclays’ new ‘Innovation Finance’ product targeted towards high-growth and innovative businesses.
The fintech firm intends to use the additional funds to accelerate organic growth in 2016/17.
The loan to AccessPay will be backed by a guarantee of the EIF, enabled by the InnovFin initiative with financial backing from the Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme.
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By GlobalDataAccessPay CEO Anish Kapoor commented: "We explored a number of options to grow our business in 2016, having the luxury of significant venture capital backing and strong existing cash flow. We felt that the local Barclays team in Manchester demonstrated from the start that they fully understood our market proposition and drive to make business payments as easy as possible, recognising the potential of the business to achieve rapid growth.
"They also saw the huge opportunity to deepen the existing working relationship between the two companies. We are very excited to be going on this journey with Barclays."
David Parr, relationship director at Barclays in Manchester, said: "As part of our plans at Barclays to enhance our high-growth offering to the market, we are extending our lending capabilities and credit appetite in the technology sector for ambitious, entrepreneurial businesses like AccessPay.
"In addition to our existing venture loan, we have launched Innovation Finance; this enables us to offer greater support to the market by allowing earlier lending to the most promising of high-growth companies and preferential pricing for all qualifying high-growth companies, allowing more funds to be re-invested into the business."
