Muse Finance - a working capital business finance provider - today announces the appointment of Julie Ashmore as COO, to help achieve its ambition to reach 30,000 customers and provide £1.5bn of SME financing in the next three years.

With over three decades of experience in fintech, Julie was previously CEO of NatWest Rapid Cash, where she led a 50-strong team which grew the client base more than 700x in just over two years. Whilst at the helm, Julie developed the leading digital working capital product at NatWest to include digitising the full end-to-end process, making working capital easy for clients to access as well as operationally efficient for the bank.

Julie will use this experience and pedigree to lead Muse Finance into its next phase of growth. Spearheading the company’s sales, operations, user experience and risk functions, her appointment comes as Muse Finance continues to grow rapidly, having just launched BNPL for businesses as part of its Working Capital suite of embedded finance products and services.

Julie Ashmore, COO of Muse Finance, said: “I’m thrilled to join the innovative team at Muse Finance at this exciting stage. I am looking forward to continuing to support small and medium sized businesses in an industry I am so passionate about. I truly believe that Ann and the team at Muse are those people who will make a huge difference in this industry and I am proud to be joining them.”

Ann Juliano, Founder and CEO of Muse Finance, said: “Julie not only has exceptional experience along with institutional-level professionalism but she also has a passion for building and creating the best customer digital experience. As we have seen from her many successes, Julie knows how to execute and deliver a tech platform that benefits the client without jeopardising risk. It is very rare to find someone like Julie that has the combination of skill, experience and technical know-how. Her addition comes at an exciting time for the business, and her innovative and adventurous mentality is exactly what Muse stands for - we’re thrilled to have her on board.”

Prior to NatWest Rapid Cash, Julie was Commercial Director at GrowthStreet, a UK based FinTech providing an overdraft alternative for working capital needs. Julie was responsible for developing distribution channels and growing market share, such that the business achieved 300% growth in its loan book in just 18 months.

Julie has also held other senior leadership roles including at HSBC as Head of SME Lending and Bibby Financial Services as Managing Director in the South West. Her final role at Bibby was as UK Operations Director where she led a global change programme focussing on improving customer journeys and efficiency within operations as a whole.