Lighting the way for Australian SMEs in a challenging time
Lumi, an Australian non-bank lender, leveraged Mambu's cloud banking platform during the pandemic to quickly integrate a government-backed lending program, enabling them to provide SMEs with fast, flexible financial support without delays.
- funded since 2018
- small businesses supported
- Net Promoter Score
lumi
About the customer
Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Sydney, Lumi specialises in offering unsecured business loans ranging from $10,000 to $750,000, with terms between 3 to 60 months. Their 5-minute online application provides funds within one day, ensuring fast and efficient SME support.
Their vision and mission is be the financial catalyst for Australian businesses to thrive, not just survive.
Lumi's customer-centric approach has earned them a Net Promoter Score of 88 and a 4.7-star Google rating.
The challenge
Funds for SMEs in times of crisis
When COVID-19 forced many small businesses to close their doors in Australia, Lumi’s founder, Yanir Yakutiel, knew swift action was crucial. Without access to funds quickly, many small businesses would struggle to stay afloat through the crisis.
In March 2020, the Australian government launched a AU$40 billion loan-guarantee scheme to keep capital flowing. It included no repayments for six months and a 50% government guarantee to support lenders. Lumi seized this opportunity to provide easy access to flexible business funding for the country's huge tribe of small SMEs.
“We applied, got accredited and then started making around 90% of our loans under that scheme. We think it’s a great scheme and we’re very excited to be part of it. Without it, the market for unsecured loans would literally dry up in a second. No one would do it!”
- Yanir Yakutiel, CEO & Founder
The solution
A flexible lending solution meeting SME needs
Instead of spending months on coding, upgrades, or costly professional services, Lumi leveraged Mambu’s flexible and composable core banking platform to seamlessly adapt its offering. This allowed them to quickly participate in the government loan-guarantee scheme and introduce a new flexible line of credit alongside their existing short-term unsecured loans.
Furthering its mission to support SME growth, Lumi launched Lumi Payment Pause in early 2021—Australia’s first 4-week interest-free loan repayment pause. Built on an innovative Mambu feature developed in response to the pandemic, this option empowered businesses to pause loan repayments and interest whenever needed. By using Mambu’s configurable platform, Lumi rapidly delivered meaningful financial relief to SMEs during a critical time.
“I’ve had the pleasure of working with Mambu for a number of years. One thing that always stood out to me was their very strong engineering culture. In Mambu we have found a purely cloud native core banking partner that allows us to leverage their offering and expertise so that we can focus on what we do best – SME lending. It’s a true symbiotic relationship of very complimentary businesses sitting alongside each other in the value chain.”
- Yanir Yakutiel, CEO & Founder
The results
Accelerating SME support through innovation
Lumi was able to respond rapidly to the changing needs of Australian SMEs during the stressful period due to the innate agility of the Mambu platform. By January 2022, Lumi secured a $40 million warehouse facility with National Australia Bank (NAB) and Alexander Funds Management (AFM) to scale SME lending and drive growth. They also expanded their leadership team with three key executive hires.
Today, Lumi offers loans from $10,000 to $750,000 with repayment terms of 3 to 60 months. Since launch, they have funded 5,000+ small businesses and disbursed over $1 billion in loans.
“In Mambu we have found a purely cloud native core banking partner that allows us to leverage their offering and expertise so that we can focus on what we do best – SME lending.”
- Yanir Yakutiel, CEO & Founder
Powering SME Lending with agility
Lumi leveraged Mambu to scale quickly, launch innovative products, and support thousands of small businesses. See how Mambu can help you build flexible and future-ready lending solutions.
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