Peer-to-peer platform Octopus Choice is estimating GBP50 million ($64.08 million) in loans in its first year of business; the platform offers loans secured on residential property with average returns of 4.2% and loan to value ratios of up to 70%; the firm's loans have ranged from GBP95,000 ($121,744) to more than GBP5 million ($6.41 million); the firm has been fully authorized by the FCA and has received its HMRC approval to offer an IFISA. Source
Polly, a company seeking to transform the mortgage industry with a data-driven capital markets ecosystem that provides value at every point in the process.
Patch of Land has filed a Form D 506c with the Securities and Exchange Commission; it seeks to raise $3.2 million in debt capital with a minimum investment of $250,000; the company has already raised $1.5 million; the company raised a total of $23.6 million in 2015 and has facilitated over $100 million in loans. Source
Los Angeles-based Patch of Land has expanded its executive leadership team to help manage and continue business growth and market positioning for the online real estate platform; the firm has hired Robert Greenberg as its chief marketing officer and Min Lee as its chief financial officer; over the past year the firm has been building a strong leadership team with a number of new hires including CEO Paul Deitch; the firm's founders, Jason and Brian Fritton, have substantial growth prospects for the firm and expect to continue building on the firm's compound annual growth rate of 290%. Source
Commercial real estate marketplace lending platform Money 360 originated loans of $35.6 million in December; the bridge loans ranged from $2.5 million to $12.5 million with durations between one and two years; according to Founder and CEO Evan Gentry, the firm expects momentum to continue in 2017 with performance from the platform a factor of increased demand from borrowers and investors for commercial real estate financing. Source
Mortgage automation can be applied to every step of the mortgage process to help make lenders more efficient and provide a better user experience.
"Rocket Mortgage has forever changed the way people think about getting a mortgage," said Jay Farner, CEO of Quicken Loans; for 2016 Quicken Loans has reported record originations of $96 billion with $7 billion contributed by Rocket Mortgage which has been originating loans for 11 months; consumers have reported high demand for the Rocket Mortgage product which provides a much simpler process for homeowners by digitally verifying income, credit, assets and property valuations. 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
AlphaFlow has announced the launch of AlphaFlow Managed Portfolios; created by Ray Sturm, co-founder of RealtyShares, AlphaFlow has been managing real estate investments that allow investors to invest in loans across multiple real estate crowdfunding platforms since its launch in 2015; the introduction of the AlphaFlow Managed Portfolios is an effort to better meet the needs and demands of the firm’s investors; the new platform will provide investors with a real estate portfolio of 75 to 100 real estate loans; the portfolio will be driven by AlphaFlow Advanced Analytics and targets returns of 8% to 10% with a 1% fee on assets under management. 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