James Robson, CEO, FundOnion
Today we’re meeting James Robson, CEO and Co-Founder of FundOnion, the UK’s only business finance comparison website, matching businesses to a curated panel of lenders to let them instantly see fees, rates and profiles.
Over to you James:
Who are you and what’s your background?
I spent the early part of my career as a corporate and banking lawyer. This was across a mixture of private practice at firms such as Linklaters and Simmons & Simmons in the City, as well as acting as General Counsel to both a London-listed mining company with assets in Portugal and Africa and GC to an Australian-listed oil & gas business focussing on the former Soviet Union (Russia/Georgia/Tajikistan).
During that time, my work focussed mainly on corporate transactions (IPOs, RTOs, equity placements, and debt transactions). After 6 years I felt I’d developed a strong corporate background but wanted more of a front-facing sales role. I joined a commercial finance brokerage in Liverpool Street (where I met one of my co-founders, Neil C.) and there I quickly saw a huge opportunity to bring my skillset to change the way small business loans were being brokered. It was clear to me (and still is) that the SME finance market is hugely fragmented and is crying out for automation and streamlining.
We (me, Neil, and Tim Plummer) started building FundOnion right at the peak of COVID, in mid-2020, aiming to change the market and make accessing finance easier and more transparent for SMEs around the country.
What is your job title and what are your general responsibilities?
I am the CEO here at FundOnion, responsible for all manner of things, from strategic decisions all the way down to day-to-day management and running of the business. I work closely with the other members of the senior leadership team, Neil and Tim Plummer, carving out our future goals and delivering our current offering and driving growth.
On an average day, I prefer to carve out and dedicate my mornings entirely to growth initiatives – as I find it more efficient to dedicate time to this without distraction. This can be focus on things like how best to improve our service offering to both new and existing clients, what lender market developments are taking place, and new ideas about service distribution.
During the afternoons I am likely to be attending meetings with lenders, the development team with Tim, and working with our brokering team with Neil to ensure we are delivering the much needed finance we promise to the SMEs that need it.
Can you give us an overview of your business?
FundOnion is the only business finance comparison website in the UK that instantly provides businesses with all the information they need to make funding decisions. This may sound simple, but no one else is doing it. For most other sources of lending, especially with an element of comparison, the process is opaque at best, with the rates, fees and identity of the lender often obscured until the very last minute. This didn’t sit right with us and so we prioritise transparency at every stage.
Businesses enter a few key details and metrics and we instantly show a range of options for finance, helping them make the decision that works best for them. From that point on our brokering team kicks into gear to make the process as simple and streamlined as possible. As well as transparency, we value speed and efficiency, as we know that in some cases a day or two’s delay could be the difference between an opportunity missed or late payment fee incurred. In fact, our fastest-ever loan was in the customer’s bank in just 19 minutes.
Tell us how you are funded?
We are proudly a bootstrapped company – angel or venture funding can work fantastically well for some companies, however that comes at the expense of parting with some degree of ownership and ultimately the ability to move, innovate, and develop your business your own way.
With a limited amount of internal funding, we tested a number of different go-to-market strategies and learnt some enormously valuable lessons which I’ll never forget: stay lean, be creative, and remain focussed on the problem you are solving for your customers.
It sounds simple but it can be difficult to implement, and even more difficult to stick to; however when it’s difficult that’s usually a sign that you’re making progress in the right direction.
What’s the origin story? Why did you start the company? To solve what problems?
The brokering of small business loans has not traditionally been subject to a great degree of innovation and the market is, in my view, way behind other areas of finance (including consumer finance).
That said, brokers drive a huge amount of volume in the market each year – in 2022 it was £45 billion. Business credit is, though, much more subjective than the assessment of personal credit and this is a huge factor in why it can be more difficult to drive technology into the business loans brokering process.
This means you end up with brokering happening ‘the old way’ which is predominantly by telephone & email and, in my industry experience, customers didn’t get much in terms of transparency about who potential lenders they would qualify for would be.
By flipping the model on its head and creating an AI-powered comparison site where businesses can come and input their requirements and instantly see options in front of them, with a dashboard for tracking their applications and real-time updates; we have really revolutionised the process for business owners. Even though we are using the forefront of technology to do this, we are really trying to solve for the same needs every customer traditionally has: to make it quick, painless, and as effective as possible.
Who are your target customers? What’s your revenue model?
Our target customers are any kind of small to medium-sized business in the UK. We are sector agnostic, and our goal is to locate the best deal in financing for these businesses.
We have funded businesses over a range of sectors including construction, luxury cosmetics, consumer, retail, hospitality, professional services, events, marketing, automotive, logistics, and many more. Our business model works as an introducer to our panel of banks and non-bank lenders, where we take a fee from the lender upon successful financing of the customer so it works as though we are part of their customer acquisition cost.
We do not charge the business directly or charge any administration fees during the process (which is markedly different from what a lot of the major players in this space do).
If you had a magic wand, what one thing would you change in the banking and/or FinTech sector?
Availability of finance for SMEs. It is the reason that we exist as a company, but it is a huge limiting factor on growth, innovation and employment in the UK. High-street banks have almost no desire to lend to SMEs and now there are suggestions of removing the “SME supporting factor” from lending rules, something that would undoubtedly make it even harder to secure funding.
We want to make it as easy as possible for growing and stable companies to access growth finance, it doesn’t seem like this is a priority for many others.
What is your message for the larger players in the Financial Services marketplace?
My message is very simple: be customer-led and tech-enabled, not the other way around. Technological advances often drive changing business practices but at the core of all businesses are people (as customers will always be people).
Large players in the Financial Services space need to remain cognisant of that, and not lose focus of the fact that technology is a tool to drive efficiency and productivity, it is not the end-goal.
The end goal needs to be on serving your customers well as this is the only factor that will allow you to conquer your market and stay as a major player over the long term.
Where do you get your Financial Services/FinTech industry news from?
I like to read the FT daily (all their newsletters and on the app) as well as subscribing to some financial newsletters for alternative asset classes such as Alts.co.
I used to read AltFi and also like Sifted.
Can you list 3 people you rate from the FinTech and/or Financial Services sector that we should be following on LinkedIn, and why?
- Christoph Rieche – CEO of iwoca. They have a great product and they have really nailed the funding process for SMEs.
- Raphael Tecucianu – Building Art Collections – founder of Renzo. He is reshaping the game in how the art world interacts with finance for both investors and collectors.
- Kofi Siaw – HSBC Innovation Banking. He is always bringing to the forefront amazing ways that founders can be supported by FS players and opportunities for startups to grow.
What FinTech services (and/or apps) do you personally use?
- Freetrade for stocks (I have been an investor with them since 2016) (https://freetrade.io/)
- Cadro for investment management (https://www.cadro.com/)
- Starling Bank for banking (https://www.starlingbank.com/)
What’s the best new FinTech product or service you’ve seen recently?
100% I would say Uome (https://www.myuome.com/). The team there (Jason Halstead, Kent Vorland) are tackling some of the real day-to-day issues small businesses face and consolidating a solution into a super-app across payments, invoicing, tax, and finance.
Finally, let’s talk predictions. What trends do you think are going to define the next few years in the FinTech sector?
It almost feels like a cop-out to say that AI is going to be key, but it has already proven to be transformational to our business, and those who can implement it safely and professionally stand to gain significant advantages.
James, thank you so much for taking the time to participate. Absolutely fascinating.
You can follow James on LinkedIn here: James Robson and find out more about FundOnion at https://www.fundonion.com/.
