LendInvest hits $1bn in funds under management

Fintech property lender notches milestone after frantic year of fundraising.

Cutting out retail P2P investors doesn’t seem to have slowed LendInvest down. The UK’s leading fintech property lender now holds £765m (approximately $1bn) under management. Its capital base has more than doubled in 2017, up 104 per cent since the start of the year.

The impressive sum comes from a mixture of sources that may well be the most diverse in the UK online lending industry. Shortly after closing to retail investors, LendInvest launched the first in a planned-series of retail bond issues, successfully raising £50m. It has also continued to attract long-term credit lines from high profile institutional partners, most recently from Citigroup, paving the way for the launch of its buy-to-let mortgage product. LendInvest also has a commitment from the £5.8bn Merseyside Pension Fund.

In addition to these sources, the firm’s direct investment platform for high net worth and sophisticated investors remains open and is reportedly seeing strong growth. The company also manages a number of funds, and has raised close to £100m of new capital for its flagship fund over the course of the year.

LendInvest attributes the growth of the fund to increased demand from international investors for exposure to secured UK property investments. Such investors would struggle to deploy meaningful amounts via property-focused online lenders, due to the relative size of most originators; LendInvest, with nearly £1.2bn lent to date, is the exception.

Another possible route for such investors is Fintex Capital, the specialist fund manager which smooths the process of institutional investment in alternative loans via bond issues. The firm has been plotting the launch of a UK real estate strategy since February of this year.

Commenting on the $1bn milestone, LendInvest co-founder and CEO Christian Faes (pictured) said that demand for UK residential property projects “consistently outweighs the supply, but banks and other traditional lenders continually fail to close that gap”.

“With a well diversified lending capital base, 2018 looks promising for us and our investors,” he continued. “We’ll lend more than ever before across the country, helping to fund the creation of thousands more essential new and improved homes in dozens of the UK’s towns and cities.”