John Charcol founder John Garfield backs online lender EZBOB Other investors include the Phenomen Ventures fund, the US venture capital fund has already invested in the Hailo taxi iphone application as well as the Angel Co-fund, which founded by a Government grant. The Keren Hagshama fund, which is a crowdsourcing vehicle, has also invested in the business. The business is the brainchild of property entrepreneurs Tomer Guriel and Sharone Perlstein, who co-founded EZBOB. Mr Perlstein is due to speaking at an event alongside Michael Fallon, Minister of State for Business, on Tuesday, where the business will be officially launched. Mr Garfield will sit on the company's board as a non-executive director. He served as John Charcol's chief executive until 2000 and remained a strategic adviser to the company - which is now owned by Towergate Financial - until fairly recently. Other directors include Kim Richardson, an investment banker from boutique fundraiser Novus Capital Markets. Asked if there was a gap in the market Mr Perlstein responded: "There is a real gap and we are already seeing this on a daily basis as small to medium businesses come to us looking for funding. EZBOB caters to online businesses, specifically the e-tailers that are considered as micro-businesses. This sector is growing in the UK at double digits every year and our online lending platform is one of the few platforms in the world that is able to assess the merits of these businesses and offer them instant funding in real time. He said that the £3m funding will allow the company to lend up to 10,000 small businesses in 2014.