• Appointments: The Rt Hon. the Baroness Susan Kramer and entrepreneur Shalini Khemka to be appointed to the MarketFinance Grant Supervisory Committee
• Direction: Policy and business expertise to guide MarketFinance in expanding product range and accessibility to finance for all SMEs
• Outcomes: the grant will be used to extend lending product set, and expand target market to include sole traders and younger businesses

12th November 2020, London: Fintech business lender MarketFinance has appointed The Rt Hon. Baroness Susan Kramer and entrepreneur Shalini Khemka to the MarketFinance Grant Supervisory Committee. These appointments follow the recent announcement of the £10m grant from the Capability and Innovation Fund, announced by Banking Competition Remedies Ltd. The grant will be used to bring more choice and competition to the business lending industry.

Baroness Kramer will act as the chair of the committee with Shalini Khemka joining as a member. The committee has been established to oversee the governance of the grant. They will provide oversight and advice to MarketFinance in its administration of the Grant, bringing their decades of experience in policy making and business to support the ambitions of MarketFinance to expand their services and help wider spread of businesses across the UK.

Baroness Kramer is a Liberal Democrat Life peer who has sat under this title in the Lords since 2011. Prior to joining the Lords, she sat in the Commons as an MP for Richmond Park from 2005 - 2010. During this coalition government, she was appointed Transport Minister. She currently undertakes the role of Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson for Treasury and Economy.

On her appointment, The Rt Hon. the Baroness Susan Kramer commented: “I have been an advocate for fintech for a very long time and I am especially thrilled to be supporting MarketFinance on this exciting journey to expand services to all businesses across the UK.”

Shalini Khemka is the founder and CEO of E2Exchange, which champions and connects entrepreneurs and invests equity capital. Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, Shalini has been actively advising the government on how to deal with furloughing and the job retention scheme. She also sits on the Mayor of London’s Business Advisory Board and is Non-Executive Director of UK Export Finance where she supports the Chief Executive and Ministers in developing UKEF’s strategy and overseeing its operations.

Shalini Khemka added: “Delighted to be supporting MarketFinance and look forward to providing strategic guidance, constructive feedback and offer specialist advice in delivering on their promises.”

As part of the commitments in securing the grant funding, MarketFinance aims to:

• Expand services to 3.5m sole traders and younger SMEs who will benefit from easy-to-use finance options
• Create more business lending products where customers will be able to personalise finance options to suit their needs
• Build on successful partnerships with Barclays and Ebury and seek to build more embedded lending partnerships with key partners who service small business
• Grow the team, creating 200 new jobs across the UK to deliver grant ambitions

Anil Stocker, CEO of MarketFinance commented: “We are looking forward to benefiting from the experiences that Baroness Kramer and Shalini will bring to the team on our journey with this grant award. Their insights will be invaluable to us as we broaden our product set and deepen connections with strategic partners to reach even more businesses. Our aim is to increase the options available to many small business owners. This is a difficult time for UK businesses who are desperately trying to find the right finance to keep their doors open – we will be there to help.”

“Looking ahead, we will deliver a solution that radically reduces the complexity of managing finances for our customers, combining the product sophistication of a large lender, with the user-friendliness of a fintech.”