Start-up financier Fundsquire group in liquidation

A fintech which specialised in lending to small business and start-ups and once had more than 50 staff has gone into liquidation.

Troubled global start-up and scale-up growth funding specialist Fundsquire Group that closed its doors late last year has been put into liquidation.

The Melbourne-based fintech company was founded in 2016 and had offices in Australia, the UK, and Canada with more than 50 employees.

The company laid off its workforce in December leaving small businesses and start-ups across Australia in the lurch.

At the time Melbourne’s Mitchell Asset Management stepped in to provide to businesses relying on Fundsquire’s loans. Mitchell also acquired the failed lender’s Australian and Canadian loan books totalling $50m. Fundsquire’s UK loan books were acquired by London-based online lending platform Sprk Capital.

Cor Cordis’ Rachel Burdett and Barry Wight were appointed liquidators of the Fundsquire Group on February 23.

Ms Burdett and Mr Wight said in a statement that the withdrawal of the debt funding facility in November 2022 impacted the viability of the Fundsquire Group.

“Cor Cordis will now assess the Fundsquire Group, realise any available assets of the companies, and conduct investigations into any potential claims,” they said.

“A detailed report will be provided to creditors and stakeholders in due course.”

Fundsquire founder and CEO Damien Petty. Source: Supplied.

Fundsquire was founded by chief executive Damien Petty, who did not return phone calls or emails.

The company had provided loans to start-ups and SMEs through early access to their R & D tax credit payments.

In 2021 it raised $75m from investment firm Fasanara Capital to deploy across Australia’s start-up sector. In September last year Fundsquire reported that it reached an SME lending milestone, delivering over $110m in funding to Australian, UK and Canadian SMEs and start-ups.

However, in January The Australian reported that collapsed Melbourne financier Antra, led by Damien Petty’s father Raymond Petty, allegedly propped up Fundsquire through a series of undocumented loans, according to administrators Jonathon Keenan and Peter Krejci of BRI Ferrier.

They said in order for a deal to repay creditors, proposed by Raymond Petty, to be successful, the value of the Fundsquire business needed to increase from zero, as it is currently, to between $63m to $115m.

The Antra administrators wrote in a report to creditors that they were not convinced that (Damien Petty) had capacity to meet the … payment obligations (under the deal) given the limited information provided on the Fundsquire business and lack of financial information on the proponents.”

The Fundsquire Group was made up of Fundsquire Pty Ltd, Fundsquire HoldCo Pty Ltd and Squire Technology which were put into liquidation