Judo Bank bags US$ 284M in funding

Melbourne, Australia-based SME (small and medium enterprises) challenger bank Judo Bank has bagged US$ 284M in a funding round held in February 2021.

Post the fundraise, the valuation of the bank stands at US$1.6 billion, an increase of 60% on its valuation, succeeding the previous funding round seven months ago.

Alex Twigg, Chris Bayliss, David Hornery, Jacqui Colwell, Joseph Healy, Kate Keenan, Mal Hiscock and Tim Alexander founded Judo in 2016. Judo Bank is an Australian Challenger Bank focusing on small and medium-sized enterprise loaning and offers a range of personal term deposit products. Co-CEO, David Hornery, said over 60% of the funds secured came from the new investors, such as UniSuper, while more than 70% of the significant existing investors returned for this round. He also added that the final count for their Round 4 capital raise was US$ 284M, with the breadth and depth of demand coming in at the very top end of their expectations. They are delighted with the result since the round was completed during some of the most challenging market conditions in a generation due to COVID-19. He further noted that they had extended their support for Australian SMEs during the COVID period, increasing business lending by 80% since March, based on APRA figures.

Hornery was quoted to have said, “Judo has a proven track record of growth since inception and importantly is now generating profits – one of the very few new banks anywhere in the world that has gone into profitability in the space of just three years.”

Judo Bank previously raised US$ 230M in a funding round held in May 2020. This round brought the neobank’s post-money valuation to more than US$1 billion.

Magnetar’s senior portfolio manager and European head, Alan Shaffran said Judo is a high-growth challenger bank having strong fundamentals, an excellent leadership team and a differentiated position in the Australian market.

UniSuper’s head of equities, Simon Hudson, said Judo Bank’s values are aligned with the industry funds. He also noted that Judo Bank’s relationship banking model and devotion to small and medium businesses could become very successful for all the right reasons. UniSuper is excited to invest and promote competition in this space, and they’re very confident this will benefit UniSuper members and all Judo’s stakeholders, he concluded.

Judo Bank’s previous investors are Bain Capital Credit, Myer Family Investments, the Abu Dhabi Capital Group, Ironbridge, SPF Investment Management, OPTrust, and Tikehau Capital.

We try our best to fact check and bring the best, well-researched and non-plagiarized content to you. Please let us know

-if there are any discrepancies in any of our published stories,
-how we can improve,
-what stories you would like us to cover and what information you are looking for, in the comments section below or through our contact form! We look forward to your feedback and thank you for stopping by!

Next Story