LendInvest, the UK’s leading online platform for property financing and investing, has completed a Series C funding round for over £30m as “pre-IPO funding”.
The funding came from existing backer Atomico, the fund setup by Skype founder Niklas Zennstrom along with new investors including GP Bullhound and Tiger Management.
The company uses technology to provide property financing, particularly in the specialist mortgage market, including bridging finance, development finance and Buy-To-Let.
LendInvest uses capital invested by institutions and wealthy individuals to lend professional property developers.
Being a very dominant player in short-term mortgages, it now intends to move towards the mainstream mortgage market.
The business has lent over £1.5bn, financed around 5,000 properties across the UK and recorded its fourth consecutive profit from operations and gross group revenues of £53m.
In a statement, co-founder & CEO Christian Faes noted “raising capital wasn’t a necessity” but the additional capital and introduction of experienced additional investors, make them “well placed to capitalize on opportunities in the future”.
Another UK company, FundingCircle, which provides P2P lending for small businesses, is also preparing for an IPO in London, indicating that alternative methods of borrowing money are providing a growing industry.
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