Funding Circle and Atom bank have announced a new lending partnership that will reportedly provide up to £150 million in funding to small businesses.

The SME lending platform said the latest commitment from Atom – representing the third partnership between the two organisations – brings Atom bank’s total lending with Funding Circle to around £800 million.

The new lending partnership will support SMEs through the latest iteration of the Government-backed Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS) offered by Funding Circle, which aims to help improve access to finance for SMEs.

“Access to finance remains crucial for small businesses, so we’re delighted to once again be partnering with Atom bank to help more SMEs get the funding they need to win,” said Funding Circle chief executive Lisa Jacobs. “The Recovery Loan Scheme is an important way for us to be able to say yes to more businesses in line with our medium-term plan, and we’re continuing to extend our track record of delivering robust and attractive loan returns for our investors, in spite of the changing economic environment.”

Atom bank said it would harness Funding Circle’s technology and distribution platform to deploy much-needed funds to support UK SMEs and deploy capital to the real economy in order to help businesses manage their finances, grow and power their communities.

“We have an ambition to support as many SMEs as possible as we scale the bank, and continuing to leverage Funding Circle's market leading tech provides us with a fantastic way to deliver on that ambition,” commented Atom chief commercial officer Chris Storey.

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