Blend Network is a UK-based company, offering asset-backed property loans to retail, high net worth and institutional investors; officially launching loans on the site two weeks ago, the firm has raised GBP350,000 ($460,115) from a small network of investors; loans are expected to offer between eight and 15% with a minimum investment of GBP1,000 ($1,315); loans are introduced by F&P who acts as a sponsor in the P2P sector; the firm introduces borrowers to a wide variety of lenders and currently works with platforms such as ThinCats. Source
PeerStreet, a platform for investing in real estate backed loans, has now integrated with Personal Capital which is powered by the Envestnet | Yodlee data aggregation platform; customers will now be able to view their PeerStreet positions within their investment portfolio on Personal Capital; this is the third such integration as PeerStreet recently announced integrations with Wealthfront and Betterment; "Many PeerStreet customers have asked for this integration with Personal Capital. We're always working to improve the experience for our customers and provide greater control and transparency," said Brett Crosby, co-founder and COO of PeerStreet." Source
Online real estate lender and crowdfunding platform Patch of Land has hired Matthew Zall to serve as its new chief investment product officer; the new hire occurs as Patch of Land plans to expand into the single-family rental market, identifying an opportunity to capitalize on the 24 million US single-family units valued at over $6 trillion; Zall's experience includes single-family loan structuring at Blackstone Group subsidiary B2R Finance; he has also worked as a commercial real estate trader at J.P. Morgan and Bear Stearns; in comments regarding the new hire, Paul Deitch, Patch of Land's chief executive officer said, "The addition of Matt enables us to continue the expansion of our marketplace to fully serve the lending needs of more than 10 million Americans who directly invest in single-family residential properties and need consistent, reliable access to capital to fuel their businesses." Source
UK online lender Funding Circle has announced it will be slowing its property lending with plans to fully end the product by mid 2018; the firm is primarily focused on SME lending and says the refocused strategy will help it to increase SME lending and shift its resources for international expansion; property loans have previously only been available to UK borrowers and the product has accounted for approximately 5% of the company's revenue. Source
Real estate marketplace lender Better Mortgage has raised $15 million in a new funding round bringing its total valuation to $220 million; the funding was provided by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Pine Brook Partners; the firm seeks to offer fast approvals for home loans and uses advanced algorithms to match borrower attributes with lending criteria from 20 large home loan buyers; launched in January 2016, the firm has funded over $500 million in home loans and is targeting $1.5 billion in originations for 2017. Source
P2P commercial real estate lender Relendex has received authorization from the Financial Conduct Authority; the platform provides secured commercial property loans through its P2P marketplace lending platform and now plans to seek the offering of innovative finance individual savings accounts for its investors; in comments regarding the authorization, Michael Lynn, the firm's founder and chief executive officer said, "FCA full authorization marks a fantastic start to 2017 for the Relendex team and platform which will further encourage and facilitate investment in commercial property from both our UK and foreign investors." Source
Episode 255 features Vishal Garg, the CEO and Founder of Better.com; he discusses the state of the mortgage market with...
One of the most innovative banks in Europe is now partnering with Airbnb to allow residential mortgage customers to rent their properties; Metro Bank will allow customers to rent their homes for up to 90 days without any written approval; Paul Riseborough, chief commercial officer at Metro Bank explained, "Our focus is on making our customers' lives as straightforward and convenient as possible and we therefore hope today's news will give our customers the reassurance they need to jump in and take advantage of everything the dynamic sharing economy has to offer." Source
LendInvest's retail bond began trading on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) this week, with the offering raising GBP50 million ($65 million) and promoted as the first to be issued by a fintech company; the underlying assets in the bond portfolio include property loans issued by the LendInvest platform; Christian Faes, co-founder and CEO of LendInvest, said: "We launched the bond program to make our asset class available to retail investors through an LSE listed offering because it is a well-established, robust structure that offers customers considerable protections. However, whilst the bond was popular with retail investors, some of the city's largest institutional investors also made significant investments."; the retail bond is the first in a multi-year GBP500 million ($650 million) bond program for LendInvest. Source
In December 2016 real estate P2P lender Wellesley began a fundraising campaign on Seedrs and also received a First Gazette notice for late accounts; a recent report from the Financial Times says the company is dependent on raising new capital in order to stay in business; its Seedrs campaign is targeting 1.5 million British pounds ($1.85 million) and has raised 195,000 British pounds ($240,280). Source