Bristol-based invoice finance provider Optimum Finance has appointed fintech expert Anthony Persse as its new chief executive officer following the death of its founder and CEO Richard Pepler in June.
Optimum said Anthony, pictured, would fulfil Richard’s ambition for the company – to provide small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) with much-needed access to fast, flexible funding, aided by highly experienced staff and pioneering technology. 
A serial entrepreneur, Richard launched Optimum Finance in 2017 – the third business he had founded – and set it on its way to become one of the UK’s fastest-growing finance businesses. Last year it extended more than £100m to a client base that grew by more than 50%.
Anthony worked with Richard in his previous business, Ultimate Finance, spending just over five years there as group head of new business, group director of risk and director of strategy. Richard, who had set up Ultimate in 2001, left in 2016, with Anthony leaving two years later.
He went on to become financial solutions director at Proactis, the spend management experts, leading the development of its market-leading early payment solution bePayd.
Optimum said described him as a “passionate advocate for technological innovation when deployed to ease the pressure of poor cashflow and late payments felt by the country’s increasingly desperate SMEs.
“He combines extensive understanding of the SME finance market with specialist technical skills.”
Anthony said: “I am thrilled to be joining the incredible team at Optimum Finance that are as passionate as I am about fulfilling the need for better smarter funding for SMEs.
“My vision is for Optimum Finance to be the go-to invoice finance option to ease the stress surrounding cash flow and late payments, so that company owners can focus on running their businesses.”
Optimum Finance is backed by the JRJ Group. Optimum chairman Peter Sugarman, who is also JRJ’s chief operating officer, said: “When we started this business back in 2017, we were determined to challenge the invoice finance sector by investing in an industry-leading fintech capability.
“We believe Anthony’s insight and technical expertise along with his infectious enthusiasm for revolutionising SME finance makes him the ideal candidate for realising our ambitions for Optimum Finance.”
Optimum CFO Scott Braybrook had been carrying put the CEO role on an interim role since Richard Pepler’s death.
