Prospa has confirmed the appointment of KPMG Partner, Raj Bhat, to its senior leadership team as Head of Group Capital Management.
Raj will be starting his new role in March 2018 after nine years at KPMG leading the firm’s Debt Advisory Services – where his team enjoyed a strong track record and industry-wide recognition for offering a best in class service proposition. In this capacity Raj served as an advisor to Prospa’s management team for the past three years.
Over the past eight years Raj has been involved in over $5bn in capital raising across a range of ASX listed and privately held Australasian finance companies, banks, credit unions and government departments.
His experience in raising capital for the financial services sector spans both consumer and commercial receivables, and a wide range of asset classes including unsecured SME loans, motor vehicles, credit cards and consumer auto and residential mortgages.
Prior to his role at KPMG, Raj was Vice President at Barclays Capital, Associate Director Leveraged Finance at Westpac, as well as spending several years with ANZ.
Ed Bigazzi, CFO at Prospa commented on the appointment: “Raj is one of Australia’s leading debt markets experts, and we are delighted to add such high calibre 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 advisors and service providers.”
Joint-CEO Beau Bertoli adds, “Efficient access to capital is an ongoing requirement for us, and vital to our long term vision for Prospa. 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.”
Raj comments, “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. 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.”
