OakNorth, the London-headquartered digital challenger bank serving scaling businesses, has received authorisation for a Representative Office in New York thereby enabling it to officially market its products and services in the US.

The fintech unicorn announced that it secured authorisation from the US Federal Reserve and the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) while it continues to explore the possibility of also gaining a US banking charter.

Since its launch in September 2015, digital challenger bank OakNorth has focused on helping the lower mid-market: scale-up businesses with $1-100m (£756k-75m~) turnover contributing to increased innovation, productivity, job creation, and GDP growth.

The bank has lent over $15bn (£11bn~) to such businesses in both the UK and US so far, which has also helped create over 47,000 jobs and 29,000 new homes—the majority of which are social and affordable housing.

The authorisation comes amid what OakNorth has called a “growing void” that’s been left in the US for lower mid-market businesses since the collapse of several commercial banks over the last 18 months—not least the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).

The challenger bank said that it’s “well-placed “to fill this void, and has already completed c.$600m (£453m) of loans to the lower mid-market in the US since July 2023.

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Speaking on the announcement as well as the company’s growth, Rishi Khosla, CEO and co-founder of OakNorth, said: “Without doing any marketing, we’ve done about three times more business in the US over the last year than we thought we would have done by this point.

“This is a clear demonstration of the demand from the lower mid-market for a banking partner like OakNorth, which can provide the speed, flexibility, transparency and entrepreneurial approach these businesses need to succeed and scale.

“Securing this authorisation from the US regulators will enable us to significantly build on the c.$600m we have lent to date, and continue supporting businesses that are vital to the economy but are being underserved and overlooked by commercial banks.”