I started Spark in February 2021. Our mission is to boost funding for SME’s by making the borrowing process more automated and less time consuming. Technology can empower these changes by speeding up manual process, ultimately delivering more money at a lower cost to UK businesses.Spark, and its subsidiary Clover Technology, are built on B2B data. We accumulate vast amounts of information to help us, and our partners, make informed / optimised decisions. We now have over 30 people, across the technology, sales and operational teams. The businesses leverage key skills I have acquired in my career – strategy, technology, corporate finance and just an ability to “get stuff done”, plus I have an exceptional management team alongside me. In 2020 I undertook a project with a high growth equipment rental business, achieving a partial exit and new investment capital. I undertook a significant amount of M&A work at FairFX / Equals Group between 2018 and 2020, following its acquisition of City Forex. I was previously MD of City Forex, with responsibility for growth, strategic decision making and general management. I have broad business experiences including sales & marketing, finance, business planning, IT and integration. From 2014, I also worked with a small family investment fund on private equity and property matters, achieving a 4 year IRR of over 40%. My career started with 12 years at a Chartered Accountancy practice (the last three as a partner) followed by two years as CFO of an equipment rental company.