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The lending platform October securitizes €200 million of loans to SMEs

October, with more than $470 million (€400 million) in funding provided to more than 840 companies globally (France, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy), is the online funding platform for leading SMEs in continental Europe. Italian SMEs affected by the coronavirus pandemic will receive support thanks to the structuring of a securitization operation of loans by October.

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The P2P lending platform for SMEs, October has allocated another $234 million (€200 million) to support Italian SMEs affected by the effects of the coronavirus, thanks to the structuring of a securitization operation of loans granted to companies by October that saw the Intesa Sanpaolo Group in the dual role of arranger and senior investor.

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The additional resources give new impetus to instant lending, introduced by October last July

In addition to the $234 million (€200 million) from the Intesa Sanpaolo Group and the equity investor for Italian companies, $23.4 million (€20 million) for European companies and a further $44.5 million (€38 million) were raised by various insurance companies and the Caisse des Dèpots et Consignation for companies in the tourism sector based in France.

The Instant Lending of October allows, through the predictive analysis of credit risk, a fully automatic evaluation of financing requests up to $293,000 (€250,000). Thanks to machine learning techniques for the evaluation of the risk of company default, the time required for the approval of financing is in fact reduced to a few minutes.

For the special servicing of loans and related guarantees issued by the Central Guarantee Fund, October has established a partnership with the NSA Group, Italy’s leading credit broker for companies in terms of turnover. Through its platform, the NSA Group will manage the entire cycle of guarantees issued by the Central Guarantee Fund.

Sergio Zocchi, CEO of October Italia, commented: “With this new operation we consolidate our role as a reliable partner for Italian companies. We have always believed in the synergy that can arise from the collaboration between banking operators and an innovative company like October that can provide the technology needed to accelerate and simplify access to credit. In Intesa Sanpaolo we have found a formidable interlocutor who, thanks to the vision of the large Group, immediately grasped the value we could put into the field by combining their respective specificities”.

In structuring the securitization, Intesa Sanpaolo Group used the services of the international law firm Jones Day in the role of transaction legal counsel, while the law firm Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe assisted the equity investor. In structuring the partnership with October, the NSA Group engaged the services of the law firm Terrin.

New investors are expected to join the platform

October, with more than $470 million (€400 million) in funding provided to more than 840 companies globally (France, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy), is the online funding platform for leading SMEs in continental Europe. Founded as Lendix by Oliver Goy in 2014, the company changed its name to October at the end of October 2018. The platform is active in 5 countries, including Italy. 

The territorial expansion was in fact one of the first goals mentioned by October in June 2018, when the last round of $37.5 million (€32 million) financing from venture capital and other investors (including Carlo De Benedetti’s CIR) was announced. Operating in Italy since May 2017, October has today financed 219 entrepreneurial projects in Italy for over $106 million (€91 million) (data at the end of August 2020).

Last May, October launched a new direct lending fund dedicated exclusively to investments in loans to Italian SMEs offered on the platform. October had already announced the first closing at $35 million (€30 million) thanks to the collaboration with five Confidi members of Federconfidi and Rete Fidi Italia and with the European Investment Fund. The subscribers are Neafidi, Confidi Systema!, Fidimpresa Italia, Confidi Sardegna, and Confidi Centro. However, new investors are expected to join in the coming months. Last September, October signed a partnership with Enel X, the Enel Group’s global business line dedicated to innovative products and digital solutions.

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(Featured image by Tumisu via Pixabay)

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J. Frank Sigerson is a business and financial journalist primarily covering crypto, cannabis, crowdfunding, technology, and marketing. He also writes about the movers and shakers in the stock market, especially in biotech, healthcare, mining, and blockchain. In the past, he has shared his thoughts on IT and design, social media, pop culture, food and wine, TV, film, and music. His works have been published in Investing.com, Equities.com, Seeking Alpha, Mogul, Small Cap Network, CNN, Technology.org, among others.