Castlelake and YouLend Sign Multi-Year Financing Facility, Boosting US Funding Potential

• USD financing from funds managed by Castlelake will enable YouLend to expand and grow its origination plans for the next three years.
• To date, YouLend has funded more than 200,000 small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) globally. Castlelake's previous financing investments have enabled YouLend to provide over $1.3bn of SMB financings across the UK and Europe

ATLANTA, Oct. 21, 2024 - YouLend, a global embedded financing platform has announced that it has secured a new financing facility with funds managed by Castlelake, a global alternative investment firm that specializes in asset-based private credit. The new facility broadens YouLend’s investor base in the US and increases YouLend’s available capital which has the potential to now extend over $1 billion in revenue-based financings to US SMBs over a three year period. The announcement follows YouLend’s recent announcement of strategic partnerships with platforms such as Etsy, FreshBooks and Paysafe in the US.

The financing facility builds on a multi-year relationship between YouLend and Castlelake across multiple geographies in Europe. In 2023, funds managed by Castlelake provided subordinated debt to support YouLend UK’s private securitization transaction. This new agreement between funds managed by Castlelake and YouLend will enable YouLend to grow US originations by delivering fast, affordable solutions to even more small and medium sized businesses.

“The United States is a critical priority for us. We’re thrilled to accelerate origination growth through this facility with Castlelake,” said Anders Torpe Christoffersen, CFO at YouLend. “It allows us to further scale our platform as we seek to provide the best possible terms to our partners and their merchants. By increasing capital capacity and adding more diversification to our investor base, we believe we can better help small and medium sized businesses access the capital they need to thrive.”

“Castlelake is pleased to expand its existing relationship with YouLend through this new financing facility for US merchants,” said Alex Curcio, Partner, Specialty Finance at Castlelake. “We believe the global SMB finance sector offers interesting asset-based investment opportunities for institutional investors and that private credit solutions are playing an increasingly important role in meeting the demand for capital from SMBs.”

In recent years, YouLend has experienced rapid growth in the US by forging key partnerships to deliver tailored financing options for small businesses. With a 90% approval rate and quick time-to-market for partners, YouLend has already supported thousands of satisfied SMBs across the country.

The deal follows a major lending milestone as YouLend celebrates 200,000 instances of funding to SMBs globally. Partners have estimated that YouLend-backed SMBs experience a 26% uplift in sales in the 6 months following funding, with these sales contributing more than $10 billion to GDP across YouLend’s core markets to date.