NatWest Backs Fintech Bourn in Push to Modernize SME Working Capital

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NatWest Takes Minority Position in Bourn

NatWest Group is taking an equity stake in Bourn, a London-based fintech start-up. The company provides smaller businesses with fast access to flexible, secured funding. The bank is acquiring a minority holding in the start-up. Bourn launched last year to help small and medium-sized enterprises manage recurring cash-flow pressures.

Although modest in size, the investment signals NatWest’s ongoing drive to innovate under chief executive Paul Thwaite. It aims to speed up the development of new products and services across its core customer segments.

Sky News previously reported that NatWest has discussed selling its majority stake in workplace pensions platform Cushon to a Willis Towers Watson unit. The pensions group would then expand its portfolio through the deal. The move into Bourn sits alongside these broader portfolio adjustments.

Details of the Funding Round

NatWest’s participation is part of a £3.5m fundraising that Bourn is set to announce on Tuesday. The round includes commitments from several other backers, among them Portfolio Ventures, McPike Global Family Office, Haatch, Love Ventures and Aperture.

The newly raised funds will support the acceleration of Bourn’s core offering, the Flexible Trade Account (FTA).

Bourn’s Flexible Trade Account Proposition

Bourn describes the FTA as a redesigned business overdraft. It integrates overdraft-style flexibility directly into the bank accounts and financial systems that SMEs already use. According to the company, this design reduces friction in accessing capital. It also helps smaller firms secure funds more quickly.

“2025 has been a year of validation, proving that SMEs and their funding partners need a more modern, data-driven approach to working capital,” said Nick Tracey, Bourn’s co-founder and chief executive.

“This investment round…shows that established banks see the same opportunity we do: to bring liquidity closer to the point of need and help businesses fund growth more dynamically.

“Our goal is to reinvent the business overdraft for SMEs.

“When working capital flows easily, businesses invest, hire and grow.

“That’s how we make finance work for the real economy again.”

Strategic Collaboration with NatWest

NatWest structured the investment to foster deeper collaboration between the two firms. The partnership aims to support the bank’s mid-market clients and its wider base of business customers. The lender also plans to use insights from Bourn’s FTA to explore how embedded working-capital tools could improve cash-flow access for entrepreneurs and growing businesses.

“Now more than ever, SMEs need the right support to scale and grow – which is why Bourn’s offering has so much potential,” said Ladi Greenstreet, head of strategic investments at NatWest.

“Their founding team combines deep banking expertise with genuine fintech innovation, while their capabilities complement our ambition to help customers access working capital seamlessly through the platforms they already use.

“Supporting Bourn reinforces our commitment to helping fintechs thrive while ensuring our commercial mid-market customers can access the funding and support they need.”