Beech Tree backs category leading online loan platform

Beech Tree Private Equity ("BTPE") is pleased to announce an investment into The Fluent Money Group ("Fluent") to help support the growth of the business.

Fluent, headquartered in Bolton, employs 100 people and is the UK's largest online secured loans broker. The award winning business was founded in 2008 in the middle of the last recession and through investing heavily in its platform has experienced considerable growth over the last few years. The business prides itself on being one of the most efficient and compliant in the industry and was the first UK broker in this market to be granted full FCA permissions. BTPE's investment is set to further accelerate the growth through investment into complimentary product areas and selective acquisitions. Andy Marsh and Adam Rudd from BTPE will join the board. In addition Mark Huggins, former Managing Director of Financial Services at Acromas Holdings (the parent company for Saga and the AA), has invested alongside BTPE and joined the executive team of the business to help drive a number of their initiatives and lead the unsecured lending proposition.

Kevin Hindley, CEO of The Fluent Money Group comments: "We are on an exciting trajectory to significantly grow our business and I am delighted to have Beech Tree Private Equity on board. We met Beech Tree as part of their sector driven approach as they had been looking for the right platform in the online lending space. We are excited to be working with Andy and Adam as they understood our business from the outset. By using their industry knowledge and connections we have already started to further strengthen our core business and bring additional product lines into our portfolio. The appointment of Mark Huggins is a testament to the Beech Tree approach. One of the most important things for us though is that Beech Tree delivered on what they said they would do when they said they would do.'

Andy Marsh Managing Partner, BTPE comments: "We are excited to be working with Kevin and the team at Fluent. The platform they have built is 'best in class' compared to what we have seen in the market, across a number of areas: transparency; efficiency, customer journey and compliance. The Management have invested heavily in the business to date and we are looking forward to supporting their plans for the future."

Notes from the Editor:

This is another great example of a northern business being the category leader in its sector, they are at the forefront of using both technology and highly trained people to create a very efficient whilst compliant platform.

Beech Tree Private Equity was advised by DLA Piper UK LLP (James Kerrigan, Chris Wilson and Gemma Hewett) and Dow Schofield Watts Transaction Services LLP (Ed Brentnall and Catriona Long). Dow Schofield Watts Corporate Finance (Mark Watts, Dave Graham and Peter Barkley) advised Newco and DWF LLP (Alasdair Outhwaite, Vicky Ross and Matthew Judge) acted for the Sellers and the management team.

About BTPE

Beech Tree Private Equity was formed with the vision to create a new type of investor. An investor to work in real partnership with management teams/ founders to create market leading businesses in fast-growth sectors. We want to work with like-minded driven management teams to grow their businesses, providing capital, expertise and connectivity to collectively create real value growth. We will invest between £10m and £40m into UK headquartered businesses providing funding for Management Buy Outs, Secondary Capital (to provide partial cash out for founder shareholders) along with Primary Capital (to accelerate growth organically or through acquisition).