An Anglo-US firm, borro, that lends against luxury items such as fine art, jewelry and classic cars says it raised £16 million ($25.7 million) in funding, drawing interest from venture capital firms at a time when traditional bank lending has been squeezed.

Launched in 2008 in the UK and this year in the US, borro offers personal loans up to £1 million secured against personal assets.

Fund-raising has included commitments from Ribbit Capital, a venture capital firm founded by Meyer Malka, and Canaan Partners, a firm with more than $3 billion of funds under management. Previous investors include Augmentum Capital, Eden Ventures, and Rockridge.

The funding will be used by borro to finance continued expansion in the US and UK.

The firm has introduced what it says is a new category of online loans, or personal asset lending, and has achieved triple-digit revenue growth each year over the last three years. With an average loan value of £6,000, borro has made 15,000 personal asset loans to date, it said.