FundingSearch.com Press Kit
Modern infrastructure connecting businesses, brokers, and lenders through intelligent financial technology. We aggregate and match commercial finance across multiple asset classes. Our AI-driven platform analyses verified financial data to connect borrowers with suitable lenders in minutes, not months.
About FundingSearch
FundingSearch.com is a UK-based financial technology company building the intelligent infrastructure layer for business finance. We simplify how commercial funding is discovered, evaluated, and delivered by connecting SME borrowers, finance brokers, and commercial lenders through verified financial data and advanced matching algorithms.
| FOUNDED | LOCATION |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Sheffield, UK |
The Platform
A SaaS business loan sourcing platform built on Next.js and headless CMS technology. Integrates with Companies House, Xero, and Sage to streamline the commercial lending process. AI and algorithms match across 900+ distinct data points spanning seven asset classes.
The Market
The UK commercial finance sector is fragmented, with processes, manual underwriting, and inefficient matching wasting time for brokers, lenders, and borrowers. The market is undergoing a digital transformation with the Open Finance regulation forthcoming.
The Solution
AI-driven commercial loan matching, intelligent application workflows, and direct lender network integration. Reduces application processing time by 80%, eliminates manual form completion, and enables faster lending decisions.
Company Logo
FundingSearch.com Frequently Asked Questions for Journalists
Company Overview
What is FundingSearch?
FundingSearch.com is a UK-based financial technology platform that simplifies commercial funding for businesses. We connect three key groups: SME borrowers seeking finance, commercial brokers and advisors, and lenders looking for quality deal flow. Our AI-driven platform matches funding requests with suitable lenders across multiple asset classes using verified financial data and advanced algorithms.
Where is FundingSearch based?
FundingSearch is headquartered in Sheffield, England. Our offices are located at Sheffield Science Park, Cooper Buildings, Arundel Street, Sheffield, S1 2NS.
Products and Services
What types of commercial finance does FundingSearch cover?
We aggregate lending products across seven key asset classes: business loans, commercial mortgages, bridging loans, invoice finance, asset finance, asset-based lending, and trade finance. This breadth means borrowers can explore multiple funding routes through a single platform.
How does the matching algorithm work?
Our platform analyses over 900 distinct data points from borrower applications. We integrate verified data from Companies House, Xero, and Sage to build a comprehensive financial profile. The algorithm then matches these profiles with lender criteria, reducing manual underwriting and accelerating the application process. This intelligence helps borrowers find suitable lenders faster and enables lenders to identify quality opportunities quickly.
Who can use FundingSearch?
We serve three distinct user groups. Businesses seeking commercial finance can explore products directly. Finance brokers and advisors use the platform to source deals and expand their lender networks. Commercial lenders access our platform to receive verified deal flow and streamline their application intake.
Market and Opportunity
Why did FundingSearch launch?
The UK commercial finance market is fragmented and inefficient. Brokers, lenders, and borrowers rely on manual processes and disconnected channels. This creates delays, duplicates work, and limits access to suitable funding options. FundingSearch was built to solve this problem by creating a connected infrastructure layer for commercial finance. We enable faster, smarter funding decisions for all parties.
What is Open Finance regulation?
Open Finance is an FCA vision that will require financial institutions to share customer data securely with authorised third parties. This creates opportunities for new fintech platforms like FundingSearch to access real-time financial data and offer better matching and services. We are positioned to lead in this new landscape as data-sharing becomes standard practice.
What is the size of the UK commercial finance market?
The UK commercial finance market encompasses billions of pounds in annual lending across business loans, commercial mortgages, and alternative finance products. Many SMEs struggle to access suitable funding, creating both a challenge and an opportunity for platforms that improve market efficiency.
Technology and Innovation
What technology stack does FundingSearch use?
FundingSearch is built on modern, cloud-native architecture using Next.js and headless CMS technology. This allows us to scale rapidly, integrate with partner systems, and deliver a seamless user experience across devices. Our tech stack supports secure data handling and compliance with financial services standards.
How does FundingSearch handle data security?
Data security is fundamental to our operation. We comply with all FCA requirements, GDPR standards, and best practices for financial data protection. Customer data is encrypted in transit and at rest. We undergo regular security audits and maintain strict access controls. Borrowers retain control of their data and decide which lenders see their information.
Which third-party systems does FundingSearch integrate with?
We integrate with Companies House for company registration data, Xero and Sage for accounting information, and lender systems for application processing. These integrations allow us to streamline data capture and reduce manual work for borrowers, brokers, and lenders.
Business Model
How does FundingSearch make money?
We operate a B2B SaaS model. Brokers and lenders pay subscription fees to access our platform and deal flow. Borrowers use the core matching service free or at a transparent, low cost. Our revenue model aligns our interests with our partners by ensuring we deliver value to all three user groups.
Do borrowers pay to use FundingSearch?
Borrowers access our platform at no cost. We believe matching should be free and transparent. Our revenue comes from brokers and lenders who benefit from improved deal sourcing and reduced processing time. This model ensures borrowers get genuine value without hidden fees.
Strategic Direction
What is FundingSearch's growth strategy?
We are pursuing two parallel strategies. First, organic growth through content marketing and SEO. We are building comprehensive educational content across commercial finance verticals to capture search traffic and establish authority. Second, B2B partner acquisition. We recruit lenders and brokers to expand our network and deal flow, creating network effects that benefit all users.
Does FundingSearch plan to expand internationally?
Our current focus is on establishing strong market leadership in the UK commercial finance sector. International expansion is a natural next step once we have built a dominant platform and network in the UK.
What are the competitive advantages of FundingSearch?
We combine deep financial services expertise with modern fintech engineering. Our AI-driven matching is proprietary and improves with scale. We are building this platform at the right time, as Open Finance regulation creates new data opportunities. Our neutral position between borrowers, brokers, and lenders gives us a unique vantage point to solve fragmentation.
Interviews and Spokesperson
Can I interview the founder or the leadership team?
Yes. We welcome media inquiries and can arrange interviews with Phillip Evans (founder) and senior team members. Interviews can be conducted in person, via phone, or on video. Please contact our media team with your publication, topic, and preferred timing.
How should I contact FundingSearch for press inquiries?
Please reach out to [email protected]. Include your publication name, topic of interest, and preferred contact method. We aim to respond to all press inquiries within 24 hours.
Where can I find FundingSearch assets (logos, photos, data)?
Visit fundingsearch.com/press for downloadable logos, founder photos, and company information. Additional assets can be requested from our media team.
What are the key talking points about FundingSearch?
Our core messages are:
- The UK commercial finance market is fragmented and inefficient. Modern infrastructure can fix this.
- AI-driven matching reduces application time by up to 80% for borrowers and accelerates deal sourcing for lenders.
- We are positioned to lead in Open Finance by having real data partnerships with borrowers, brokers, and lenders.
- We operate with integrity as a neutral platform serving all three sides of the market.
- The future of commercial finance is digital, transparent, and data-driven.
How marketplace finance is reshaping SME lending in the UK
The traditional route to business finance in the UK has always involved a lot of waiting. Weeks of back-and-forth with a bank relationship manager, a thick documentation checklist, and a binary yes or no at the end of it. For a growing number of SMEs, that process simply does not work anymore, whether because of timeline pressure, eligibility gaps, or the sheer administrative burden it places on a small team already stretched thin. Marketplace finance has emerged as the practical alternative: an infrastructure-led model that connects SME borrowers with lenders through technology, replacing manual gatekeeping with verified data and intelligent matching.
At its core, marketplace finance connects SME borrowers directly to a network of lenders through an online platform, using technology to match applications to suitable finance products rather than funnelling everything through a single institution. The platform is not the lender. It is the infrastructure layer that makes the connection structured, fast, and data-driven. FundingSearch is built around this model, applying verified financial data and automated matching to create cleaner, faster deal flow for borrowers, brokers, and lenders alike.
This article explains how marketplace finance works, how it compares with traditional bank lending, what the regulatory landscape looks like, and how to evaluate platforms, whether you are an SME looking for funding, a broker managing complex cases, or a lender building your distribution strategy.
What separates marketplace finance from banks and peer-to-peer lending
Marketplace finance sits on a three-tier structure: the borrower submits an application, the platform assesses, enriches, and routes it, and the lender makes a credit decision. In many marketplace models, the platform does not provide capital from its own balance sheet; it functions as a distribution and intelligence layer rather than a capital provider. That distinction changes a great deal about how quickly the process moves and how broadly a borrower can access the market.
It is worth being clear that marketplace lending and peer-to-peer lending are not the same thing. In a peer-to-peer lending marketplace, retail or institutional investors fund individual loans and carry the default risk directly. In a broader business funding marketplace, the lenders are typically banks, alternative lenders, and specialist finance providers who fund from their own balance sheets. The platform routes applications to them, but investors are not pooling money into individual loans. The distinction matters when you are assessing risk, regulation, and the lender you are actually contracting with.
Because the platform is not the lender, it can support multiple finance products within a single origination journey: unsecured business loans, asset finance, invoice finance, commercial mortgages, bridging loans, and revenue-based finance. The borrower accesses a wider range of options through one application. The lender only sees the deals that match their specific criteria. That mutual efficiency is the commercial logic at the heart of the model.
The technology behind a structured marketplace deal
The mechanics of a modern marketplace begin before a human ever reads the application. Integrations with Companies House pre-populate the company's registered information, directors, and filing history. Connections to accounting software, including Xero, Sage, and FreshBooks, for example, pull revenue, profit and loss, and outstanding liabilities directly into the application. Open banking APIs bring in live bank transaction data. By the time the application is submitted, much of the financial picture is already verified rather than self-reported, though the extent of pre-verification depends on the permissions and integrations the borrower enables.
The matching layer is where marketplace finance platforms create their real value. Rather than sending an application to every lender in the network, the platform's matching engine scores it against each lender's configured appetite: sector, geography, turnover band, credit profile, loan size, and product type. Only lenders whose criteria align with the borrower's profile receive the deal. Lenders stop wading through irrelevant enquiries. Borrowers stop receiving declines from lenders who were never a viable fit. For lenders, this also removes the need to run their own marketing campaigns or front-end application infrastructure to generate comparable deal volume.
According to industry analysis of AI-driven origination deployments, AI borrower-lender matching has been associated with processing-cost reductions of roughly 25 to 40% compared with traditional SME origination methods, where lenders typically acquire leads first and qualify them later. The AI-driven approach reverses that sequence: qualify and route before expensive human processing begins. That shift in logic is what reduces cost per acquisition and compresses time to decision simultaneously.
Marketplace finance speed and cost: how the numbers compare
Traditional bank lending for SMEs typically moves through several layers: relationship manager review, credit committee, underwriting, legal, and final approval. That process commonly takes one to three weeks for a straightforward case and significantly longer for secured or complex lending. Marketplace platforms that use automated underwriting and verified data integrations can deliver decisions within hours to days. Based on current market analysis, the gap in 2026 is roughly tenfold: approximately two working days for a marketplace finance decision versus two weeks or more for a bank business loan.
Speed comes at a price. Unsecured marketplace term loans typically carry rates from around 7% to 18% annually for creditworthy SMEs, based on indicative pricing from active UK marketplace loan platforms. Revenue-based finance and merchant cash advance products use factor rates that can be significantly more expensive when converted to an equivalent APR. Traditional bank loans for strong applicants often price lower, but the eligibility bar is higher and the timeline longer. The honest comparison is not rate against rate: it is total cost of borrowing, including arrangement fees, broker fees, personal guarantee risk, and repayment flexibility, set against the time and certainty value of the funding.
For an SME with a trading history under two years, limited collateral, or an urgent working capital need, a bank loan may not be available within a useful timeframe. The marketplace lending model fills that gap with more flexible eligibility criteria, faster access, and a broader product range. For well-established businesses with strong balance sheets, the bank route often wins on cost, provided they can meet the documentation requirements and wait for the decision.
What brokers and lenders gain from a marketplace origination model
A commercial finance broker managing multiple SME clients across different product types faces a coordination problem. Matching each client to the right lenders, managing documentation, and tracking case progress across multiple platforms is time-consuming and error-prone. A deal origination marketplace solves this by providing a single workspace where the broker can onboard a new client, complete a structured application with verified data, and submit it to a pre-matched lender shortlist in one workflow. FundingSearch's broker onboarding is guided and structured, routing each case to lenders whose criteria match the deal from the start, reducing the administrative back-and-forth that typically costs brokers the most time.
For lenders, the value is on the distribution side. A lender joining FundingSearch configures a custom profile covering the sectors it will consider, the geographies it covers, minimum and maximum loan size, minimum turnover, and the credit profile it targets. The applications that arrive are already pre-filtered, verified, and ready for underwriting review. White-label capability allows lenders who want full brand visibility to host the application journey on their own domain, giving them origination infrastructure with their own name on the front door. An API-first architecture allows lender systems, including CRM platforms such as Salesforce, HubSpot, and Pipedrive, to receive structured application data directly without manual re-keying.
Regulatory realities and the risks borrowers should price in
Marketplace finance providers in the UK operate under FCA authorisation requirements that depend on their specific activities. A platform that arranges credit, operates a peer-to-peer lending arrangement, or holds client money needs FCA authorisation and must comply with the relevant conduct-of-business rules. The Consumer Duty framework requires that regulated firms actively deliver good outcomes for retail customers across pricing, transparency, and support. The key question for any SME is whether the platform is FCA authorised, what regulated activity it holds permission for, and whether the product on offer carries any FSCS protection. Most peer-to-peer and marketplace lending products do not carry the same deposit protection as a bank account.
Four risk areas are worth examining before signing any marketplace loan agreement:
- Default consequences: late payment can damage your company's credit record, trigger enforcement against pledged assets, and activate personal guarantee clauses.
- Platform failure: if the platform becomes insolvent, loan servicing may transfer or become disrupted.
- Pricing transparency: some platforms quote periodic rates or factor rates that appear modest until converted to an annual equivalent.
- Lender identity: confirm who the lender of record actually is, because the platform originating your application and the entity you are contracting with are not always the same.
Before applying through any online lending marketplace, verify the platform's FCA authorisation number on the FCA register, obtain a written pre-contract disclosure covering the total borrowing cost, all fees, repayment schedule, and default charges, and compare at least two or three offers using total repayment rather than monthly payment. Take independent advice if personal guarantees or security are involved.
How to shortlist and apply to the right marketplace finance platform
Four criteria cut through the noise quickly when evaluating platforms. Product fit: does the platform support the specific finance type you need at your required ticket size? Eligibility transparency: does it publish its minimum criteria before you apply, or does it only reveal a decline after a credit search has already been run? Cost clarity: does it provide an APR or total repayment figure upfront, or does it use factor rates that obscure the real cost? Technology quality: does it use open finance and accounting integrations to pull verified data automatically, or does it require you to upload documents manually? Platforms that score well across all four are the ones that can deliver a decision with confidence and transparency.
A structured marketplace application typically starts with company verification via Companies House, followed by a short product selection and loan purpose section. Accounting and open banking integrations pull in the financial data automatically. The platform then matches the application against its lender network, presents a shortlist of eligible options, and routes the case forward once a lender is selected. FundingSearch's borrower journey is designed around this model, a guided, data-driven process aimed at getting a qualified SME from enquiry to lender submission without manual back-and-forth, with brokers able to manage the entire process on behalf of their client through a single dashboard.
Where this leaves UK SME lending
Marketplace finance has moved from a niche alternative to a mainstream distribution channel for UK SME lending. The underlying reason is not marketing; it is infrastructure. When verified financial data from Companies House, accounting software, and open banking replaces self-reported figures, and when AI-driven matching replaces manual broker calls, the entire lending process becomes faster, more accurate, and cheaper to operate for everyone involved.
The numbers reflect this shift. According to British Business Bank market data, alternative lenders now account for roughly 68% of UK SME lending by volume, and qualifying applicants in unsecured term lending and invoice finance segments achieved approval rates above 70% in 2026. For SMEs and brokers alike, that translates to less paperwork, faster decisions, and a wider range of products accessible through a single application. For lenders, it means receiving structured, pre-qualified deal flow without building origination technology from scratch.
Whatever your role in the funding process, FundingSearch is designed to be your starting point for marketplace finance. The platform connects verified borrowers with a network of lenders across every major commercial finance product, with custom lender profiles, white-label options, and API integrations ready to deploy from day one. Get in touch with our team to explore how it works for your business.