Australian credit fund managers, whose businesses have been built supporting private equity deals with debt funding, are plotting a move into the corporate lending market.Last August, OneVentures announced that it was launching a venture credit fund, claiming to offer the first such fund in Australia. The fund will lend to high-growth companies in the tech sector.It is not the only credit fund manager moving out of its established niche.Grant Chamberlain, a partner at OneVentures, said: "The problem we are solving is for fast-growing companies. These businesses are spending heavily on business development and have no free cash flow. They need additional capital.""In the past, they have had to take that money as equity. It dilutes their holdings. By taking on debt instead, the founders can hold onto more of the company," said Chamberlain, who spoke at the AVCJ Private Equity & Venture Forum in Sydney this week."We are senior secured, the LVRs are low and there is usually and equity provider in there with us. Interest rates are in the low double digits."Another speaker at the conference, Bain Capital Credit director Paul Kennedy, said the royal commission had made banks focus more on reputation risk and this was providing opportunities for other lenders."When loans are not working, the bank might move to re-set with another credit provider. "We are getting inquiries from small, non-bank platforms doing SME lending. They are looking for funding for growth and we are providing that funding."Superannuation funds are short Australian corporate credit. There is plenty of capital flow. The institutional credit market is taking share from banks. We are in the early stages."Gary Stead, managing director of HPS Investment Partners, said companies still tend to see credit funds as "rapacious". "They don't appreciate that we are only slightly more expensive than banks. They have to see us participating in more transactions and they will get comfortable with us as counterparties," Stead said.Chamberlain said: "We don't ask for personal guarantees or security outside the company. Business owners like that."Stead added: "Banks are more approachable these days about working with credit funds. They will provide the working capital facilities and transactions account for business we are funding."