Brexit plan: LendInvest to boost Luxembourg presence

The property lending platform has become a fellow of the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology.

With one eye on Brexit, leading fintech property lender LendInvest has opted to bolster its presence in Luxembourg, where one of its funds has been domiciled since 2014.

That fund attracted around £100m of new capital last year, bringing its assets under management to over £150m. Investors in the fund include banks, pension and infrastructure funds, family offices and private investors from the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

LendInvest is now seeking to ramp up its Luxembourg operations by joining the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology (LHoFT). The organisation, set up in 2016 to drive innovation in Luxembourg’s domestic and international investment community, already has more than 50 European fintech members. It is chaired by Luxembourg’s Minister of Finance.

Christian Faes, co-founder and CEO of LendInvest, said in a statement: “As our presence in Luxembourg grows, we look forward to becoming a more active and engaged advocate for Luxembourg’s FinTech ecosystem, just as we have been in London for a number of years. We’ve been impressed with LHoFT's work to forge a vibrant FinTech movement in Luxembourg, which seems to have buy-in from the biggest financial services businesses in the county as well as backing from the government.”

In addition to joining LHoFT, LendInvest intends to hire additional staff in Luxembourg in the months to come, as its fund investment activity expands.

The property lending platform operates four key investment channels, of which its Luxembourg fund is one. The others are an online investment platform for sophisticated investors, a listed retail bond programme on the London Stock Exchange and a number of long-term credit lines from institutional investors. The firm paused its peer-to-peer lending operations in 2017.

LendInvest’s decision to focus more resource on Europe is reminiscent of Zopa’s decision to set up a technology hub – focused on its bank-build – in Barcelona last summer, seemingly as part of a post-Brexit talent strategy. 

“Thinking ahead to a post-Brexit world, the make-up of which still isn’t clear, it’s important to us to ensure we’re well established in Europe’s number one investment hub,” said Faes. “Luxembourg is the obvious mainland European base for us. A solid presence there helps us prepare for whatever the Brexit future might look like.”