Folk2Folk, the Cornwall-headquartered lender for UK regional SMEs, is on track to achieve a profit of around £2 million for its 2021 financial year, effectively doubling the profit of the previous year.
Subject to audit, a 2021 pre-tax profit of £1.98 million will be Folk2Folk’s largest annual profit to date and marks three consecutive years of profit for the company.
In addition, the company says it hit several significant growth metrics during 2021 including a return to its pre-2020 track record of double-digit loan book growth, expansion into Northern Ireland and securing a multi-million pound investment commitment from British Business Investments.
During 2021, Folk2Folk lent a record £108 million to businesses across Cornwall, Devon and other regions of the UK, which brought their total lending to more than half a billion.
Roy Warren, Folk2Folk MD, said: “I am proud that during 2021 we delivered on what we said we’re going to do and are financially robust. But we’re not stopping there, we have ambitious growth plans for this year which are already moving ahead at pace. We see huge opportunities to write considerable volumes of loans across the UK, and institutional investment is a key part of our strategy to support that.
“We also expect the alternative finance market to continue to consolidate and present opportunity for us to acquire loan books from other platforms. We see this as a growth area for us and are actively looking within the market to move forward with this.”
