Lumi raises $20 million in latest funding round

Australian fintech Lumi has announced a $20 million raise to be used in the company’s expansion of its services and post-pandemic recovery.

Perennial Partners have joined as a strategic investor while existing investors such as Josh Liberman Investment Group participated in the raise.

According to a Lumi spokesperson, the company raised a junior mezzanine tranche to improve its capital structure and fund growth, with Lumi recently doubling its funding facilities.

The business has also doubled its headcount, now at 60, with plans to double this figure once more in 2022. A recent signing of an office space lease in Sydney’s CBD seeks to accommodate this growing team.

“Since our inception, there’s been a lot of industry commentary around the ‘promise of fintech’ and the disruption it will bring,” said Lumi CEO Yanir Yakutiel.

“During the crisis, lenders like Lumi helped keep real Australian businesses going with innovative products like the Lumi Kickstarter loan. Now we must start to scale to the size where we can be true competitors on a national level, and we are proud to have the backing of our investors to go to seize the opportunity coming out of the global pandemic.”

“We’ve always believed it's the investment into our technology platform that will help set us apart. With the capital we have raised today, we can move away from the narrow product focus that tends to define lending and build out a broad range of services for Australia’s SMBs to power their businesses.”

The company focuses its lending to small to medium-sized enterprises, offering a more efficient way of accessing capital.

The company also announced a partnership with Openpay to allow for SME funding to OpyPro customers.

“Lumi is a great Australian growth story. We agree with its vision of economic recovery and growth, and the need for finance to modernise and match the needs of its customers,” said Brandan Lyons, head of private investments at Perennial Partners."