GP Bullhound advises on financing for Prodigy Finance totalling $123m

London, 6 October 2015 – GP Bullhound, the technology investment bank, acted as financial adviser to Prodigy Finance, the leading specialist in postgraduate international student lending, on a $123.5m raise composed of $12.5m in equity, led by Balderton, and $111m in financing facilities, from Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and other qualified private investors.

Prodigy Finance is a globally-accessible platform that provides funding to international postgraduate students attending top-ranked business schools, specifically the Financial Times Top 100, while delivering competitive financial and social returns to institutional and private investors (including alumni).

Since 2007, Prodigy Finance has processed over $130 million through the platform to fund over 2,300 students from 92 nationalities, with repayment rates in excess of 99%. With offices in London and Cape Town, and plans to extend into Asia in 2016, Prodigy Finance has tripled its staff complement over the last two years.

The new investment will allow Prodigy Finance to support more students in their studies, while delivering financial and social benefits to investors.

Cameron Stevens, Prodigy Finance CEO and co-founder, says: “This very significant investment clearly demonstrates that not only is there strong demand for investment opportunities that combine a clear social purpose with competitive financial returns, but that our investors share our vision to invest in future leaders. GP Bullhound’s advice and commitment was hugely appreciated and instrumental in the process.”

Guillaume Bonneton, Partner at GP Bullhound commented: “We are delighted to have delivered a successful transaction to such an innovative and global Fintech company as Prodigy Finance. We are currently seeing a strong interest from European investors in Fintech and believe in an increased activity in the sector in the next 12 months.”

This represents the completion of GP Bullhound’s 19th transaction in 2015 and underlines the firm’s depth of experience in Fintech following other deals recently completed for Slimpay, Smava, KnCMiner, Zuto, Treasury Intelligence Solutions, PayOne, Pozitron, Klarna and Payson.

Enquiries
For enquiries please contact: Guillaume Bonneton at guillaume.bonneton@gpbullhound.com

GP Bullhound
As dealmakers in technology, GP Bullhound provides independent strategic advice on mergers and acquisitions and private placements to entrepreneurs, companies and investors. By combining a true passion for innovation with great access to global buyers and capital across Europe, US and Asia, GP Bullhound has completed transactions with many category leaders including Avito, Delivery Hero, Fjord, King.com, Pingdom, Pozitron and Spotify. The firm was founded in London in 1999 and today also has offices in San Francisco, Stockholm, Berlin and Manchester.