London-based AI-powered credit technology firm Abound has secured up to €299.8 million in financing for consumer loans from Deutsche Bank, further strengthening its ability to offer fairer, more affordable credit to UK borrowers.
This latest funding, which will sit alongside Abound’s existing facilities from funders including Citi, Waterfall Asset Management and LuminArx, provides additional firepower to scale its operations, enhance financial inclusion, and modernise the lending sector.
This raises Abound’s total lending capacity to €1.9 billion.
Gerald Chappell, CEO and Co-founder of Abound, said: “This new facility from Deutsche Bank further evidences the power of our bank-transaction data led AI credit decisioning technology. Open Banking has become a mature and widely adopted technology in the UK, and is now used by nearly 20 million people. As more and more countries around the world adopt Open Banking, we’re perfectly poised to start taking what’s worked in the UK, global.”
Abound was founded in 2020 by senior credit experts Gerald Chappell (ex-McKinsey Partner) and Dr Michelle He (ex-EY Director), and is now reportedly one of the UK’s fastest-growing FinTechs, having issued over €779.7 million in loans since launching.
Abound uses Open Banking and AI to provide borrowers with fair loans based on what they can actually afford to repay. The currently offer loans between €1.1k and €23.9k, repayable for up 8 years with APRs ranging from 8% to 29.8%
In a world with more data available than ever before, Abound believes it no longer makes sense to rely on statistical averages and outdated credit scores.
Their cashflow pioneering cashflow underwriting platform, Render, uses AI-driven Open Banking insights to understand each borrower’s unique financial situation and affordability. By utilising this real-time financial data, Render also enables Abound to minimise its default rates and offer lower rates to consumers.
Render is the proprietary technology of Fintern Holdings Ltd., and Abound serves as their consumer arm.
Dr Michelle He, COO and co-founder of Abound, added: “Abound’s diversified funding strategy ensures resilience in the evolving credit market, as we continue to expand, and, increasingly, provide our technology to other lenders.”
In order to qualify for a loan, lenders must be at least 18 years old, have the right to live in the UK, have a main bank account in the UK, and have no unresolved defaults or CCJs.
Their website claims that all applicants will “receive a decision within a day“, and that if accepted, the money will also be transferred (potentially) within a day. Payment holidays are also offered.
Abound announced it had turned profitable in April 2024, three years after launching.
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2025/03/abound-secures-up-to-e300-million-in-financing-to-power-the-ai-led-lending-revolution/
