Small business lender expands management team
(1 February 2018 – Australia) Online lender Prospa has appointed a KPMG partner to the role of head of group capital management.
Raj Bhat, who has served as an adviser to Prospa’s management team for the past three years, will start his new role in March and will be tasked with expanding the online lender’s capital strategies aimed at improving small business cash flow.
For the past nine years, he has led KPMG’s debt advisory services, first serving as director before assuming the role of partner in 2014.
During his time at KPMG, Bhat was involved in over A$5 billion in capital raising for publicly listed and privately owned financial institutions across the Australasian market.
Chief financial officer of Prospa Ed Bigazzi said of the appointment, “Raj is one of Australia’s leading debt market experts, and we are delighted to add such high-caliber expertise to our finance team.
“Raj has extensive understanding of the capital markets, is well respected and has deep relationships within the capital market community including senior and junior capital providers, arrangers, rating agencies, legal advisers and service providers.”
Joint-CEO Beau Bertoli added that, “Raj will help drive our capital strategies forward so we can build a best in class funding platform and accelerate cash flow for small businesses, who are a critical part of the Australian economy.”
Bhat said that he is looking forward to helping Prospa achieve its objectives.
“After spending the last decade advising and helping my financial services clients to design, optimise and execute funding platforms, I was seeking a new challenge,” he said.
“Having advised the Prospa management team for several years, it was clear to me that the opportunity to work closer within the business alongside the highly qualified and dynamic team that the founders have assembled was the right choice.
“I look forward to being a part of this growth story in the years to come.”
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