SME lender Praetura is uniting its five brands to make it simpler to match UK SMEs with finance that genuinely meets their needs.
The move unites the Praetura brands Kingsway Finance, Praetura Asset Finance, Praetura Commercial Finance, Praetura Invoice Finance and Zodeq under the Praetura name, bringing their specialist expertise and funding products into a single offering. The unification is designed to simplify how businesses, brokers and introducers approach finance when the funding requirement is more complex, or requires a multi-product solution.
Praetura’s products span asset finance, business loans, invoice finance and recruitment finance. The lender works with businesses ranging from start-ups to established firms, with funding for asset purchases, acquisitions, succession, refinancing, and day-to-day cash flow.
Based in the North West, with offices in Wilmslow and Blackburn, Praetura employs more than 150 people across the UK and has supported more than 10,000 businesses nationwide. To date, it’s deployed almost £2 billion to firms across sectors including manufacturing, construction, transport, healthcare, recruitment, retail and hospitality, with a current lending book of £650m – which has grown five-fold since 2020.
The breadth of the lender’s expertise can be demonstrated by recent deals, which include a £1.9m invoice discounting facility to support the management buy-out of licensed apparel specialist Brands In; an £800k loan to NHS supplier RM Medics; a £100k factoring facility to support the growth of a recruitment business; a £75k hire purchase agreement to fund the purchase of a touring coach for a Midlands-based transport operator; and a £25k hire purchase agreement for the purchase of hydraulic equipment by a machine tool supplier.
The Praetura businesses have been operating as a group for a number of years, but the transition to a single brand – which will complete by the end of 2026 – underpins Praetura’s growth plans. The move will not affect relationships and arrangements with existing clients.
Peadar O’Reilly, chief executive at Praetura, said: “As the financial services sector has evolved, UK businesses have gained access to an increasing variety of products and lenders. This evolution is largely positive, as it encourages lenders to innovate and develop their products and services, but it has also made access to finance complex and disjointed.
“Many SMEs are now burdened with facilities that solved a short term problem, or were right for that moment in time, but do not necessarily set them up for stability and growth long term.
“We believe that a more solution-led approach to SME lending, where multiple products are available from a single funder, means we can align more closely with our clients’ needs, ensure we’re offering funding that sets them up for success and ultimately, change what’s possible for their business.
“Uniting the Praetura brands is the natural next step in enabling us to achieve this goal; it’s a project that we’ve been working on for a while, so we’re excited to share the news with our professional network, and to start 2027 as one Praetura.”
The transition will retain the Praetura name and logo, but introduce a refreshed brand style and a single website at praetura.co.uk to replace the existing brand websites.
