Oxbury Bank, the new tech-driven agriculture bank, announces additional investment from leading technology investor Hambro Perks

• Bank announces completion of a further £6m in funding to support lending growth – with leading private technology investor Hambro Perks leading a suite of new and existing investors into the business
   
• First nine months of trading sees strong lending and deposit growth driven by Oxbury’s innovative new products. In Oxbury’s first nine months of operation, the bank:
  • Has achieved over £100m in committed lending to farm businesses
  • Has attracted over £120m in retail and business deposits in a fiercely competitive savings market.
     
• Fintech-driven lender is pioneering new product innovation with unique Oxbury Farm Credit working capital proposition and Oxbury Forest Saver, the UK’s first direct carbon mitigation savings account.
   
• Oxbury won ‘Best Lending Initiative’ in the 2021 Emerging Payment Awards as judged by global Fintech industry peers.

Oxbury Bank, the UK’s first dedicated agriculture bank in 100 years, has today announced the completion of a further £6m in funding, with renowned private technology investor Hambro Perks leading new and existing investors into the business, and taking the total equity raised by Oxbury to over £40m.

Oxbury is on a mission to help Britain’s 250,000 farm businesses as they rise to the challenge of climate change and build a modern, sustainable industry – targeting over £1.5bn of lending to British farming by 2025.

Since Oxbury was founded in May 2018 by James Farrar and Nick Evans, seasoned entrepreneurs in the finance and agriculture sectors, the business has attracted funding from a unique group of technology, sustainability and agriculture investors including Wheatsheaf, Hutchinsons and Frontier Agriculture.  This additional funding from Hambro Perks will help support additional growth and expansion.

The funding comes after nine months of impressive performance for the business, which has seen strong early growth in both lending and savings since opening for business in February 2021.

In Oxbury’s first nine months of operation – the bank has achieved:

• over £100m in committed lending to farm businesses
• over £120m in retail and business deposits in a fiercely competitive savings market.

James Farrar, Oxbury CEO, said: “We’re incredibly proud to reach over £100m in committed lending – it’s a really important milestone and ahead of our initial projections for the business. The bank’s performance since launch has really underlined the strong demand for our customer-focussed approach to lending among businesses in the crucial farming and food production sector in the UK.”

James continued, “We’re delighted to welcome new investment from Hambro Perks. Their investment will help support our continued growth, as well as enable additional investment in the development of our market-defining tech-driven products.”

Tom Bradley, Partner at Hambo Perks, said: “We are investors who are always looking to enable innovation. Our team identified the opportunity to invest at the junction of fintech and agriculture and from our first meeting with the Oxbury team we were impressed both by the calibre and credentials of the team and their vision to bring innovation to the agricultural finance market. The team has executed strongly and we are delighted to partner with them to help support the next phase of growth.”

After more than a decade of retreat from the UK agriculture sector by traditional lenders, Oxbury was launched in January 2021 to offer radically different lending services for the farming industry as it rises to the challenge of climate change and building a modern, sustainable industry.

Using new data-driven technology, combined with an experienced network of agriculture relationship managers, Oxbury has launched its unique Oxbury Farm Credit lending product offering flexible and tailored working capital facilities to Britain’s 250,000 farm businesses combined with a range of flexible lending products designed to support the progressive British farmer as they transition to a post-CAP and net zero economy.

As a leading proponent of sustainable finance, supporting UK agriculture, Oxbury has also launched the UK’s first direct carbon mitigation savings account – Oxbury Forest Saver – enabling retail savers to use their savings to fund a thriving farming community and sustainability projects across Britain.

About Oxbury Bank:
Oxbury is the UK’s specialist agricultural bank, the only bank with a 100% dedicated focus on British farmers, food producers and the rural economy. It is headquartered in Chester and operates across the UK.

The bank is a collaboration of experienced bankers, farmers, technology experts and agricultural entrepreneurs, with backing from the UK’s largest agribusiness firms and leading farmers.
Oxbury’s products include Oxbury Farm Credit for working capital needs, longer term lending via Oxbury Farm Loans, as well as other flexible finance facilities, as well as savings accounts for farmers (Farm Business Bonus) and the general public, including Oxbury Forest Saver, the UK’s first carbon-mitigation savings accounts.

Oxbury’s fintech architecture comprises native microservices running as docker containers in AWS, next generation API standards used to power web, mobile and integrated UIs in multi-availability zone deployments to ensure a resilient and secure service supported with passwordless multi-factor authentication.

Oxbury Bank Plc is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority (Financial Services Register number: 834822). 
For more information about Oxbury, visit: www.oxbury.com

About Hambro Perks:
Hambro Perks is a London-headquartered international investment firm focussed on private technology investing. We partner with founders and entrepreneurs to support growth businesses at all stages of investment cycle.

Hambro Perks has specialised and dedicated investment teams, working across a number of funds. In addition to their flagship Venture, EIS and co-investment funds, Hambro Perks offers a number of specialist differentiated investment strategies, including Hambro Perks Environmental Technology, Special Situations, and Access, which invests in venture secondaries.