New green finance partnership between Paragon and Zeti opens door for UK SMEs to invest in renewable energy technologies and…
Paragon Bank’s SME Lending division has expanded its partnership with fintech Zeti, strengthening their shared mission to help UK SMEs accelerate their transition to net zero.
The expanded agreement formally appoints Zeti as Paragon’s fintech partner, with ZetiOS, its cloud-based software platform enabling the financing and management of transportation and energy assets. Paragon will now be able to gain access to real‑time asset data through ZetiOS, including financial reporting, emissions tracking and asset health monitoring, which will provide enhanced automation, financial and sustainability reporting and richer ESG intelligence across its financed assets. This will ultimately lead to more informed lending decisions and faster decision‑making, leading to a smoother customer experience.
The two organisations have collaborated since 2023 through Paragon’s relationship with Otto Car, Europe’s largest private hire fleet provider, using ZetiOS to enable innovative pay‑per‑use financing for Otto’s portfolio of low‑emission vehicles.
This structure has already delivered meaningful environmental and commercial outcomes, including 75 vehicles funded under the scheme, with 226,000 kilograms of CO₂ savings, equivalent to the energy use of around 28 homes for a full year. It’s also avoided 65.5 kilograms of NOx emissions – equivalent to the annual NOx output of around 15–20 average diesel cars – with more than 1.27 million zero‑ or low‑emission miles driven.
The partnership will support the financing of a wider range of renewable energy assets such as rooftop solar, combined heat and power systems and small‑scale wind, enabling SMEs to fund equipment in a way that reflects actual energy production and usage. By building on established Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) models, the partnership aims to help SMEs lower energy costs while supporting the UK’s broader ambitions for decarbonisation and energy resilience.
Matt Bass, head of Specialist Finance in Paragon’s SME Lending division, said: “As a FTSE 250 lender working with more than 16,000 UK SMEs, Paragon is committed to funding a greener future for SMEs and the UK economy.
“We want to make a meaningful difference by providing simple and modern finance solutions which enable SMEs to have assets that reduce emissions and provide energy certainty. Zeti’s team is entirely aligned with these goals and their tech expertise enables us to do exactly that. Whether it’s pay‑per‑use vehicle finance or multi‑asset renewable energy solutions, this partnership allows us to deliver smarter, data‑driven outcomes for our customers at scale.”
Dave Kennon, commercial director, Zeti, added: “This partnership is a great example of what happens when deep finance experience meets genuinely innovative technology. We have worked closely with the team at Paragon to remove many of the traditional barriers that slow down capital deployment, whether that is complexity, data gaps or rigid structures. By using ZetiOS across its portfolio management, Paragon can reach a broader range of customers and asset classes, helping clients access flexible finance and new products that deliver long-term energy security at lower cost, while supporting net zero ambitions across transport, energy and beyond.” Dan Saunders, founder & CEO, Zeti, said: “From the outset, ZetiOS was built to modernise how capital connects with real-world assets. Our technology brings together data, insight and automation to give lenders the confidence to finance more customers, more efficiently, across a much wider set of asset and infrastructure use cases. Partnering with Paragon demonstrates how banks can move beyond traditional models and use software to support everything from vehicle finance to complex renewable and energy infrastructure assets.”
The Zeti collaboration aligns with Paragon’s growing footprint in the clean‑energy finance space and builds on the bank’s rooftop solar scheme with HDM Energies – an initiative which removes upfront costs for participants and is so far expected to save customers a collective £24.9m in energy savings and reduce emissions by 900,000 tonnes, equivalent to taking 200,000 cars off the road for a year.