New lender Fuels Capital backs European entrepreneurs

Newly launched private credit firm Fuels Capital has increased its maximum loan size to €25m (£21.6m), targeting a gap in the market as entrepreneurs and company builders across Europe struggle to access private credit.

Founded in 2025, Fuels Capital is a business unit within financial services venture builder and investor 0TO9. It specialises in asset-backed lending for owner-led and entrepreneur-managed companies.

The Swedish private credit firm expanded its lending capacity following a recent market analysis that found 25 to 30 per cent of European mid-market companies do not qualify for bank lending, private credit funds or bond market financing.

“Private credit is booming, but the companies that need it most are still being turned away,” said Gabriella Sahlman, managing partner and co-founder at Fuels Capital. “The market has concentrated around private-equity-backed, cash-flow-based deals. Entrepreneurs, the ones building Europe’s industrial base, don’t always fit that template.”

Private equity-backed companies account for just five to 10 per cent of investable businesses in Europe, yet absorb 89 per cent of private credit, according to the firm’s analysis.

The financing gap is particularly pronounced in asset-based finance, where non-bank lenders hold just 13 per cent of the European market, less than half their 34 per cent share in the US, Fuels Capital said.

Sahlman joined Fuels Capital after co-founding Ex-Proventus Capital Partners, which oversees €3.5bn in assets under management. She joins co-founders Robin Gerum, chief executive, and Oliver Hildebrandt, who is also the founder of parent company 0TO9.

“Without capital at the right moment, growth stalls, or founders are forced to surrender equity they should never have had to give away,” she added. “That’s the gap Fuels Capital was built to close.”