Linked Finance appoints new CEO and funds over €3m in its first month
Linked Finance, the leading fintech lender to Irish SMEs, has welcomed Niall O’Grady as its new chief executive. He has taken over from Niall Dorrian who has stepped down after five highly successful years at the helm. Niall Dorrian will remain as a non-executive director of the company.
Niall O’Grady has extensive experience in the financial sector, most recently as managing director of 123.ie and director of distribution of RSA. Before that he was with Permanent TSB as commercial director.
Since becoming the first non-bank lender under the government’s flagship Covid-19 Credit Guarantee Scheme at the beginning of January, Linked Finance has already funded over €3m worth of loans to SME customers. Linked Finance can provide a credit decision on unsecured loans of up to €250,000 in under 24 hours from receiving an application.
Commenting on the appointment, Michael Cawley, chairman of Linked Finance said: “I’m delighted to welcome Niall O’Grady as our new CEO. He has an excellent track record at growing financial services companies and we will benefit from his extensive experience building Linked Finance into a high performing, fast growing business. I look forward to working with him. I want to thank Niall Dorrian for his leadership of the company over the last five years. He leaves the business in great health and well poised for strong future growth.”
Niall O’Grady, CEO of Linked Finance, said “Linked Finance is a great company and I am very excited by the opportunity to grow the business and support Irish SMEs through the current challenges they face. Talking to customers this week, I can see a clear need for the speed and simplicity of our finance offering. It has been great to join a business just as we start to offer the government’s Covid-19 Credit Guarantee Scheme to our customers. We have seen record levels of interest and we are able to move very quickly to fund great Irish businesses under this important scheme.
The CCGS is designed to offer low cost working capital and capital expenditure loans for businesses affected by Covid-19. One such business to benefit is Insomnia coffee franchise Graham O’Sullivan Restaurants, who has successfully received funding from Linked Finance to fit out a chain of walk-up and drive-thru takeaway coffee outlets in portable shipping containers.
Felim Meade of Graham O’Sullivan Restaurants commented: “Linked Finance’s speed of approval, professional approach and their proactive appetite to lend under the Covid-19 Credit Guarantee Scheme has been a breath of fresh air. Their personal service, advanced technology and credit evaluation process is market leading and I would highly recommend them to any businesses looking to access fast and simple finance.”
Since its establishment Linked FInance has grown rapidly to deliver over €143m in loans to thousands of Irish businesses. Companies that have been supported by Linked Finance loans include Lolly & Cooks, Murphy’s Ice Cream, Iconic Offices and the Irish Fairy Door Company.