iwoca – fast loans for small businesses in the 21st century

So you want a loan to help expand your business. What are your first steps? You go to your bank with the relevant information compiled by yourself or your accountant; you submit your application; and you wait, and wait, and wait. All that time is gone, all those chances to reap the rewards of expansion are wasted. In a data-driven internet age, is that really acceptable? iwoca thinks not.

“I was somewhat frustrated by the small impact I could have on the world,” says Christoph Rieche, CEO and co-founder of iwoca, “so I started iwoca, really out of the ambition to see much more impact from my work.”

Rieche, who is originally from Germany, had the idea for iwoca when he realised he wanted to do something with fintech. He knew he wanted to help small businesses, but coming from a big trading floor at Goldman Sachs he had little understanding of tech and start-ups, so he went looking for a co-founder, which he found in James Dear.