Profits soar at fintech Abound as borrowers turn to AI loans

7 July 2025

One of London’s most promising fintech companies enjoyed a 25-fold increase in profits last year as borrowers move onto its technology-driven loans platform

Profits at one of London’s most promising fintech companies surged 25-fold last year as borrowers bypassed traditional lending in favour of its technology-driven loans platform.

Abound, which uses artificial intelligence to provide borrowers with loans based on what they can afford to repay, generated a net profit of £7.5 million in the 12 months to February, up from £300,000 a year earlier, as revenues climbed 151 per cent to £66.8 million amid a rise in clients using its direct lending business and its business-to-business offering.

Abound focuses on borrowers who struggle to obtain credit from traditional high street banks and uses artificial intelligence to power its credit decisions by scanning through prospective customers’ bank transaction data to assess their ability to repay a loan.

The company provides loans directly to consumers and also supplies its AI-driven technology, which is called Render, to other lenders in Europe.

Michelle He, formerly of EY, who founded Abound with Gerald Chappell, its chief executive and a former partner at the consulting firm McKinsey, said: “With structurally higher interest rates and sluggish economic growth, the era of rapidly growing tech firms without a clear path to profit is ending.

“Established, profitable sectors like lending and insurance are now ripe for disruption with technology that drives real productivity and efficiency.”

Chappell added: “This continued growth shows that our technological shake-up of the lending sector is not only commercially viable but scalable.”

Since it was founded in 2020, Abound has provided £900 million in loans and has secured £1.6 billion in debt funding from the likes of Citi, Deutsche Bank and Waterfall Asset Management. Existing investors include Informed Ventures, formerly GSR Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm, and West Coast Capital, the investment firm of Sir Tom Hunter, the Scottish billionaire.

Abound is part of London’s burgeoning fintech scene, which was rocked last month by the decision by Wise, which is regarded as a jewel in the capital’s fintech crown, to move its primary listing to New York.

Wise, which listed in London in July 2021 and is valued at about £10.4 billion, concluded, after a review, that switching its primary listing to the United States would increase the trading liquidity in its shares and raise its profile among new customers.

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