LendInvest is a British non-bank mortgage lender which provides a property lending and investing platform.[1][2][3] As an alternative fintech lender in the property market, LendInvest provides finance to property professionals and small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) around the UK.[4][5][6][7] It also makes it possible for individuals, corporates and institutions to invest in secured property loans originated and underwritten by its mortgage team.[8]
LendInvest operates throughout the UK with staff based regionally covering Southern England, Northern England and Scotland.[9] LendInvest is a leading FinTech companies in the UK.[10][11]
LendInvest was launched in 2013 when it was spun out of Montello,[12] a London-based specialist short-term property finance lender. LendInvest is a publicly listed company and is backed by Atomico, the European venture capital investment fund co-founded by Niklas Zennström, which invested £17 million in the company in March 2016.[13][14]
History
Since 2015, LendInvest has published an independently audited Annual Report on its website.[15] In the year to 31 March 2017, LendInvest reported 20% revenue growth to £40 million and an underlying profit from operations of £2.6 million.[16]
In February 2017, LendInvest published a report entitled "Starting small to build more homes: A blueprint for better policymaking in the property SME market",[17] that revealed that SMEs in the housebuilding sector have been failing at alarming rates,[18] and argues that the government could help to resolve the country's chronic housing shortage by rebooting its strategy to help smaller property firms.[19] The report was formally launched on 21 March 2017 by Conor Burns MP.[20]
In June 2017, LendInvest received a third SQ1 Servicer Quality Rating from European ratings agency ARC Ratings.[21] ARC Rating assesses the process used by LendInvest to originate, underwrite and service property loans.[22]
In September 2016, LendInvest launched the LendInvest Property Development Academy,[23] a non-profit two day course for aspiring property entrepreneurs to learn how to better equip themselves with the skills they need to grow their property development portfolios.[24] Academy courses are held in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Bristol and Birmingham.[25] The Academy was launched in collaboration with the University of Reading[26] and is supported by the Home Builders' Federation.[27] The initiative was attended by the Scottish government in June 2017 when Minister for Housing Kevin Stewart MSP launched the Edinburgh course.[28]
In November 2017, LendInvest launched into the UK Buy-to-Let market[29] and in June 2019 became the first Fintech to securitise its own assets in a £259 million securitisation of Buy-to-Let loans.[30]
LendInvest became a public company in July 2021, listing on the London Stock Exchange's AIM.[31]
Products
LendInvest provides short-term financing options, and Buy-to-Let mortgages for UK-based property investors.[32]
On 10 August 2017, LendInvest launched a listed retail bond on the London Stock Exchange.[3] The process to raise LendInvest's first retail bond was closed early and oversubscribed.[33] The retail bond is the first to be issued by a FinTech business and constitutes a fourth funding channel for the company.[33] LendInvest's first retail bond was added by the Daily Telegraph's Questor share tip column to its £500,000 Income Portfolio on 4 August 2017.[34]
