Bourn, the UK fintech reinventing the business overdraft for the growth economy, has raised £3.5 million in new funding to expand the reach of its Flexible Trade Account (FTA), a modern working capital solution giving small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) real-time access to flexible secured funding.
The round includes a strategic minority investment from NatWest Group, alongside funding from other investors including McPike Global Family Office, Haatch, Love Ventures, Portfolio Ventures and Aperture.
The capital will be used to deepen Bourn’s account functionality, grow its team, and scale through new financial services and platform partnerships that bring working capital directly into the systems businesses already use.
Read More – Vibranium Labs Raises $4.6M in Seed Funding
Through its strategic investment, NatWest aims to gain insights from Bourn’s Flexible Trade Account (FTA) to explore how embedded working capital can strengthen cash flow access for entrepreneurs and businesses across the UK – giving traditionally underserved customers greater support to grow and thrive.
Bourn is tackling the funding gap that SMEs sometimes face by embedding overdraft-style flexibility directly into the bank accounts and financial platforms SMEs already operate, thereby removing friction and unlocking a faster, fairer flow of capital.
At the heart of its approach is the Flexible Trade Account, which integrates payments, current account functionality, and instant access to secured working capital. Powered by real-time data and an AI-driven risk engine, the FTA enables businesses to pay suppliers faster, manage cash flow intelligently, and fund growth without taking on additional debt.
Bourn has been piloting the solution with Investec for several months now, working with live customers to validate the solution as an alternative to traditional offerings. The initial results have been overwhelmingly positive, with the bank seeing the solution as a potential ‘game-changer’ for the industry.
Beyond NatWest and Investec, Bourn is integrating with a growing network of financial institutions, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, accounting platforms, and B2B marketplaces. This embedded model allows its working-capital solution to reach businesses within their existing financial workflows, helping finance providers deliver on-demand funding with minimal operational complexity.
By positioning itself as the infrastructure layer for embedded SME finance, Bourn enables partners to deploy flexible, receivable-backed funding at scale, reducing distribution costs while accelerating SME access to productive capital.
Read More – BriefCatch Raises $6M in Series A Funding
