Ebury expands Australian presence

Ebury announced that it has opened the doors of its second office on Australian shores on Collins Street, Melbourne, in light of a “period of exceptional nationwide growth”.

The new office comes just 12 months after the official launch of Ebury in Australia, which has been offering foreign exchange related products and services out of its Sydney office since August 2018.

Earlier this year, the non-bank also began offering trade finance for importing and exporting SMEs, which it said would help fill a void in the SME finance space.  

According to Ebury Australia managing director Rick Roache, since launching the new product three months ago, the Australian arm of the non-bank lender had become the fifth largest market of the 22 Ebury trade finance markets across the world.

Mr Roache added that he anticipates Australia becoming the third-largest Ebury offshoot, according to loan value, by 2020.

According to Mr Roache, the billion-dollar London-headquartered fintech initially ventured into the Australian market as it saw a huge opportunity to support Australian SMEs (particularly those with volatile revenue and cash flow), which have historically faced some difficulty gaining access to capital.

“Our sweet spot is that we combine FX and trade finance in one place, which is a strong and compelling proposition. We expect to grow significantly as we build out our client footprint,” Mr Road said. 

“Having people on the ground in Melbourne will help us develop deeper relationships with Victorian clients and better understand the nuances of their businesses, which is at the core of our offering.”

He continued: “Melbourne and Victoria are very important for Ebury’s growth plans in Australia. Melbourne is growing faster than Sydney and in 2018 generated almost 20 per cent of Australia’s GDP. This increases to 23.3 per cent of national GDP if regional Victoria is included.”

[Related: New player enters non-bank lending space]