Lenkie

Lenkie is a London-based fintech that provides UK small and medium-sized businesses with transaction-based working capital. Rather than issuing a conventional loan, the company pays suppliers directly on behalf of an SME at the point of purchase, allowing growing firms to acquire stock, materials and services upfront without locking up cash on their balance sheet.

The platform uses proprietary underwriting models and real-time business performance data to make funding decisions in seconds, in contrast with the slow, document-heavy assessments used by traditional lenders. Lenkie targets the gap left by high-street banks, which have steadily withdrawn from small business lending and left an estimated £22 billion of unmet demand in the UK alone.

Founded in 2021 by Sanjeev Jeyakumar and Nnaemeka Obodoekwe, Lenkie has funded more than £70 million to UK SMEs and made supplier payments to over 2,000 vendors across 40 countries. The company raised £49 million in a Series A round in March 2025 — £4 million of equity and a £45 million debt facility — led by a US private credit fund focused on backing international lenders.