Wellesley Extends Mini-Bond Offering

Wellesley and Co. – the peer-to-peer business lender – has announced that it is extending its mini-bond offering.

The mini-bond, which has raised £16 million in the last year, is being offered at between 6% and 7% gross per annum, paid twice annually. Investors can lend a minimum of £100, and investment options increase in £10 increments from there.

First reported by AltFi in July last year, the funding sourced by the Wellesley Savings Bond so far has proved integral in Wellesley’s growth and helped drive the platform to winning the AltFi award for Fastest Growing Peer-to-Peer Lending Platform in 2014. The platform has traded £256 million of asset backed loans since June 2013 and, according to the Liberum AltFi UK volume index, controls a 6% share of the UK P2P market.

Graham Wellesley – joint CEO and Chairman – commented:

“We are thrilled to be extending this Mini-Bond offer, fresh on the success of our previous funding rounds, and knowing that we can use the capital to build on the significant success we have achieved over the last year.”

“The Wellesley Mini-Bond gives investors a chance to gain a stake in a non-listed business that offers returns of up to 7%. The added security of our asset-backed loans as well as the generous cashback incentives, make this an extremely attractive investment for investors.”

The cash-back scheme allows investors to claim between 1.5% and 3% cash-back – depending on the size and duration of the investment.

David Walker, Corporate partner at Memery Crystal LLP said

“Wellesley’s versatile, open-ended Mini Bond has proven extremely popular with private investors. Wellesley has a trusted and experienced management team who have come up with an innovative product that provides investors with an opportunity to get behind one of the major Peer-to-Peer providers in the market."

With the AltFi Awards just around the corner once more, we’ll see if Wellesley can retain their title for the second year running.