LMG acquires commercial lending fintech

The fintech, co-founded and developed by Drago Mitkov, will see CLE integrated into the myCRM platform to “give commercial brokers a significant efficiency advantage”.

The CLE platform and knowledge centre currently offers a centralised hub for increasing confidence and improving opportunities in commercial finance. It provides brokers with mentoring for commercial banking scenarios, a fulfilment centre and deal lodgement and sub-aggregation services.

It can reportedly help brokers process client applications with “strong accuracy in calculations and financial ratios” and facilitates quicker deal submissions, lifts the quality of applications and delivers higher conversion rates.

According to LMG, the tech will also provide brokers with stronger insights, tools and resources to uplift the commercial processes.

The aggregator said that the move means that brokers can not only accelerate client approvals, but also present themselves with polished, professional submissions, to delight their clients and “set a new standard for commercial loan applications and client experience in commercial finance”.

Speaking of the deal, LMG said the acquisition forms part of the aggregation giant’s strategy to “support and empower commercial and asset finance brokers”, and further support its residential brokers, with their diversification ambitions.

Stephen Scahill, group executive of LMG commercial, said: “We are thrilled to announce the acquisition of CLE. With this new platform, we are doubling down on our investment in commercial finance. This is just a glimpse of our vigorous growth trajectory and unwavering commitment to pioneering our industry.

“CLE’s features are transformative for our brokers. This platform streamlines processes, deepens client understanding, and will ultimately provide our lender partners with a higher quality, more consistent credit submission.”

CLE co-founder Mr Mitkov added: “We’ve built a platform we are very proud of and we feel there is more we can do. By partnering with LMG and leveraging their extensive technology team we can take the CLE platform to new heights.”

The CLE platform is currently being embedded into LMG’s technology stack with some functions to be released later this year and a full-scale launch in February 2024.

It forms part of LMG’s growing commercial finance offering, which sits alongside its asset finance and residential offerings.

The aggregator brought together all of its brands earlier this year to form Australia’s largest aggregation group.

[Related: LMG augments its asset finance sales team]