Linked Finance brings online crowd funding for SMEs to Ireland

Peter O'Mahony, CEO Linked Finance, Conor Mc Aleese, COO, Linked Finance, Bobby Kerr, Senator

Linked Finance brings online crowd funding for SMEs to Ireland
Peter O� Mahony, CEO Linked Finance, Conor Mc Aleese, COO, Linked Finance, Bobby Kerr, Senator Feargal Quinn and Kingsley Aikins

An online crowd funding initiative called Linked Finance has been launched in Dublin with the backing of Irish entrepreneurs and international investors.

The new Linked Finance technology facilitates person to person lending, or ‘crowd funding’ for Irish business.

Business borrowers, vetted as part of the Linked Finance registration process, can access cashflow from a pool of potential lenders, who, in turn, can request and earn good returns on their investment, and engage with the businesses they invest in, both as customers and backers.

Linked Finance CEO Peter O’Mahony explains: “Linked Finance is technology offering a new and painless way for Irish businesses to borrow money from a large group of real people, including their customers, employees, and business associates. Lenders, with as little as €50 to invest, select the type of business they are willing to back and the return they expect.

“A credit risk algorithm is used to process loan applications, and simple online transactions link borrowers and lenders, with speed and dignity,” O’Mahony explains.

The Irish business had start-up investment from Enterprise Ireland, and partners and investors in the new crowd funding scheme include entrepreneurs Bobby Kerr, Senator Feargal Quinn, and Kingsley Aikins, as well as Irish American businessmen Carl Shanahan and Peter Hooper.

“Linked Finance not only provides investment, but builds strong business relationships, as a company’s lenders become its customers, ambassadors, and sales people in effect.  With Linked Finance, bankers get bypassed, the wheels of business are kept turning, and everyone wins,” says O’Mahony.