Multitude SE: CapitalBox Launches SME-Focused Collateral Lending  

Helsinki, 19 February 2024 – Multitude SE, a listed European FinTech company, offering digital lending and online banking services to consumers, small and medium-sized businesses, and other FinTechs (ISIN: FI4000106299, WKN: A1W9NS) (“Multitude” or “Company” or “Group”) announces, that its business unit CapitalBox, the leading FinTech lender for small- and medium-sized enterprises in Europe, officially launches its new comprehensive collateral lending program today. These secured instalment loans are designed to meet the needs of traditionally underserved small- and medium-sized enterprises throughout Europe. The launch represents a significant expansion in CapitalBox’s lending offerings.

CapitalBox’s new collateral lending program provides secured instalment loans that run from €100,000 to €1 million – in other words, the kind of cash infusion and capital SMEs need to expand meaningfully, not just stay afloat. These loans are instrumental in businesses' ability to make large-scale purchases such as machinery and other assets required to enter new markets, develop new products, and meet increased customer demand. 

The new lending product combines CapitalBox’s existing instalment loan product – itself already popular with European small business owners – with an additional real collateral security in order to significantly lower the unrecoverable default risk. As a result, CapitalBox can now present even more competitive offers that will both lower APRs and provide greater loan amounts to high-grade SMEs.

“We’ve been working towards expanding into collateral lending for some time now, which is instrumental to our commitment to helping SMEs traditionally overlooked by conventional banks. We’ve made these loans as competitive and customisable as possible, which is exactly in line with our overarching mission to make lending as seamless as possible for the SMEs we serve. I predict this will bring more types of SMEs into the CapitalBox fold. We’re ready and waiting to make their lives easier and their businesses more successful,” said Mantvydas Štareika, CEO of CapitalBox.

"With the new secured loans from CapitalBox, we are supporting companies at a time when their access to debt capital is difficult due to the uncertain economic and political situation and they are suffering from the continuing high inflation and the economic environment.  In addition, the expansion of our CapitalBox product range is an important step towards more growth and is part of our new strategy presented last year. This once again underlines our ambition to grow significantly across all business units of the Multitude Group in the coming years. At the same time, we are reducing the financial risk for our company by collateralizing the loans and can thus indirectly further increase the value for our shareholders," added Jorma Jokela, CEO of Multitude SE.

In order to acquire these loans, businesses will provide CapitalBox’s team with information about their collateral assets and their company’s financial position. Loans will then be dispersed following the successful verification of external valuation reports, a manual review conducted by CapitalBox’s internal credit committee, and confirmation by a verified external valuator, acting here as a secondary safety layer to assure the assumed collateral value is correct.

As CapitalBox already accepts personal guarantees as collateral, the focus of this loan product is its newly expanded acceptance of real collateral, most commonly in the form of industrial property, business premises, corporate mortgage and transportation, and investment assets.

CapitalBox’s collateral loans are competitive and flexible enough to cater to the specific needs of SMEs throughout Europe. It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach because Europe’s SMEs aren’t one and the same. The origination fee is 0.5%, loan terms can be extended up to five years, and early repayments are possible at any time. Given CapitalBox’s emphasis on flexibility and understanding of how SME leaders operate, residential real estate such as personal apartments will be accepted. Loan applications are already being accepted in all the markets of CapitalBox.

Contact:

Lasse Mäkelä
Chief Strategy and IR Officer
Tel.: +41 79 371 34 17
E-Mail: Lasse.makela@multitude.com

About Multitude SE:

Multitude is a listed European FinTech company, offering digital lending and online banking services to consumers, small and medium-sized businesses, and other FinTechs overlooked by traditional banks. The services are provided through three independent business units, which are served by our internal Banking-as-a-Service Growth Platform. Multitude’s business units are consumer banking (Ferratum), business banking (CapitalBox) and wholesale banking (Multitude Bank). Multitude Group employs over 700 people in 25 countries and offers services in 16 countries, achieving a combined turnover of 212 million euros in 2022. Multitude was founded in Finland in 2005 and is listed on the Prime Standard segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol 'FRU'. www.multitude.com

About CapitalBox:

As a leading European FinTech lender for small- and medium-sized enterprises, CapitalBox provides timely, trusted, and tailored alternative funding solutions to businesses that form the backbone of the European innovation economy. Founded in 2015 as part of Multitude Group’s growth platform, the pure FinTech lender provides fully automated online business loans up to €3 million that can be delivered in minutes following a successful application. CapitalBox’s unique business risk assessment methodology, ability to deliver capital quickly, and emphasis on personalized service make financing newly feasible for underserved businesses across the continent. Headquartered in Finland, the lender has offices in Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Lithuania, with plans to expand into more countries in the near future.