StepEx company history
StepEx provides tuition finance for UK education providers. We lend to students and collect their repayments, and the provider is paid as students repay.
StepEx today
StepEx was founded in 2017. StepEx Lender Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (Firm Reference Number 824928). Almost all of the finance we provide today is for university degrees, and we operate only in the United Kingdom.
For long-standing education provider customers, we occasionally purchase future receivables to give them liquidity. However, our core business is as the infrastructure for student loans, paying when paid.
The company has changed since it started. Articles and directory profiles written before 2026 describe earlier stages of the business. This page sets out what changed and when.
At a glance
2017 to 2020. Proving the model. Future Earnings Agreements for IT bootcamps and business schools in the UK and Europe, funded largely from StepEx's own capital.
2021 to 2024. Building the platform. Institutional investment, the Creative Destruction Lab FinTech programme at Oxford, and payment plans alongside Future Earnings Agreements.
2025 to today. Finance for university degrees. UK education providers and UK residents only, almost entirely university degrees. Providers are paid as students repay.
Timeline
2017 to 2020: proving the model
- 2017. StepEx is founded in London so that students can pay for a course out of their future earnings, through Future Earnings Agreements.
- 2018. StepEx raises its first angel investment and sets up StepEx Lender Ltd as its lending company. StepEx is one of the early firms supported by the Financial Conduct Authority's Innovate programme, and StepEx Lender Ltd goes on to receive what we believe was the first regulatory permission to provide Future Earnings Agreements, known elsewhere as Income Share Agreements or Human Capital Contracts.
- 2019. StepEx is one of 12 companies selected to present at Pitch@Palace 12.0 at St James's Palace.
In these years StepEx finances IT bootcamps and business school courses in the UK and Europe, funding agreements largely from its own capital.
2021 to 2024: building the platform
- 2021. StepEx completes an investment round led by BBVA Anthemis Venture Partnership, with Triple Point Ventures. It joins the first FinTech cohort of Creative Destruction Lab at the University of Oxford's Saïd Business School.
- 2022. Anthemis, backed by Barclays, begins investing in Future Earnings Agreements, the first institutional funding of StepEx agreements.
- 2023. StepEx adds payment plans with fixed monthly instalments alongside Future Earnings Agreements.
2025 to today: finance for university degrees
- 2025. University degrees become a significant share of new agreements. StepEx now provides finance only through UK education providers and only to UK residents.
- 2026. Almost all new finance is for university degrees, and most agreements are payment plans with fixed monthly instalments. Education providers are paid as students repay and, in the overwhelming majority of cases, carry the repayment risk. StepEx is named in the UK Fast Growth Index 2026 as one of the 200 fastest-growing companies in the UK.
What has changed
If you have read about StepEx elsewhere, this is how earlier descriptions compare with the company today.
| Subject | In older articles and profiles | Today |
|---|---|---|
| Where StepEx operates | The UK and Europe | The United Kingdom only, since 2025 |
| Courses financed | Mainly IT bootcamps, with some business schools | Almost entirely university degrees |
| Products | Future Earnings Agreements only | Future Earnings Agreements and payment plans |
| How applications are assessed | Finance “based on future earnings rather than credit history” | Future earnings play some part, but credit history and bank transaction history are significant drivers of StepEx's acceptance criteria |
| Who funds agreements | StepEx's own capital and institutional investors | The education provider is paid as students repay and carries the repayment risk in the overwhelming majority of cases |
| Stage of company | An early-stage fintech | An established finance firm, trading since 2017, FCA authorised, named in the UK Fast Growth Index 2026 |