The Bank dedicated to Aussie businesses has arrived

Nearly half of SMEs want to borrow money in the next year but are uncertain of their borrowing capacity and correct loan documentation and have falling levels of trust in banks, new research from Judo Bank has found.

The findings come from Judo Bank’s second annual SME Banking Insights Annual Report, which saw researchers East & Partners interview 1,751 small- to medium-sized enterprise (SME) owners and managers.

The report paints a picture of growing mistrust with the banks and frustrations around the loan process and turnaround times.

SMEs seeking finance

According to the research, just over 46 per cent of SMEs sought finance in 2018-19, for an average value of $1.1 million.

Nearly three-quarters of businesses that sought funding in the past year succeeded (with an average sum of $800,000 sought), while a quarter of SMEs (particularly those seeking larger loans) were unsuccessful.

According to the Judo Bank report, the current funding “gap” for businesses with a turnover of up to $20 million has grown in the past year from $83 billion to $90 billion.

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Our editors and data scientists parsed billions of actions generated by LinkedIn’s 645 million members — and looked at four pillars in particular: employee growth; jobseeker interest; member engagement with the company and its employees; and how well these startups pulled talent from our flagship LinkedIn Top Companies list. To be eligible, companies must be 7 years old or younger, have at least 50 employees, be privately held and headquartered in Australia. (You can learn more about our methodology at the bottom of this article.)

Joseph Healy’s capital-hungry challenger bank Judo has just pocketed $400 million from a second-round raising that was the biggest private funding round by a local start-up to date.

So what’s next? More capital, of course.

Taking a breather while visiting investors in Asia and Europe, Healy told Four Pillars that Judo would go cap in hand for a further “couple of hundred million” around the middle of next year.

By mid-2020, it will be $3bn or thereabouts.