up to £250m · Debt · Fintech · Birmingham, UK
Lovey has secured an up-to-£250m senior secured credit facility from Pollen Street to expand lending to small and medium-sized businesses across the UK. The structure comprises £50m of committed capital and a £200m accordion, according to the lender and Lovey's own announcement.
That distinction matters: the £250m is the facility's maximum capacity, not equity funding or cash available to spend immediately. Lovey can draw against it as eligible loans are originated, with the accordion providing room to scale beyond the initially committed amount.
A hybrid route to SME credit
Founded in 2016 by Jack Smith, Birmingham-based Lovey combines a finance brokerage with direct balance-sheet lending. Its brokerage can match borrowers with third-party lenders, while its own lending operation, launched in 2022, lets the company fund selected loans itself. Lovey's website advertises business loans from £1,000 to £1m, with applications taking about 60 seconds, decisions within an hour and funds potentially available in four hours.
The new facility is intended to increase Lovey's own-book capacity and support larger loans. Commercially, the hybrid model gives it two ways to serve a borrower: place the application with another lender or retain an eligible loan on its balance sheet. More committed funding can therefore increase the share and size of loans Lovey originates directly, while brokerage preserves another route for cases that do not fit its credit criteria.
Pollen Street says Lovey has facilitated more than £600m in loans to over 11,000 UK SMEs and employs more than 120 people. These are company and investor-reported figures. The lender said its investment was supported by Lovey's technology, underwriting approach and customer service, while Lovey said the facility would help it offer larger loans and extend its reach.
Turning capacity into performing loans
The transaction adds to Lovey's earlier funding stack, which includes a £35m revolving credit facility from Paragon and a £10m junior note programme, according to Pollen Street. It also changes the scale at which the company can lend from its own balance sheet.
The practical test is not the headline ceiling alone. Lovey must convert the additional capacity into well-underwritten loans while controlling credit losses and funding costs. If it does, the facility should let the company serve a broader range of SME borrowing needs without abandoning the brokerage channel that helped build its distribution.
Sources checked:
Pollen Street announcement · Lovey announcement · Lovey website · Tech.eu Funding Explorer
