Real estate-backed loan investment platform PeerStreet has raised $15m in a Series A round led by Silicon Valley heavyweight Andreessen Horowitz.
The round also saw participation from The Kaiser Family Foundation, Rembrandt Venture Partners and Montage Ventures among others.
PeerStreet’s platform aims to open up access to previously difficult to access investments in real estate-based loans to accredited investors.
It does this by tapping into existing networks of local lenders a process it says helps to assess risk and reduce customer acquisition cost.
The Los Angeles-based business says its platform applies big data to enhance lenders ability to buy and sell loans through the platform.
PeerStreet COO and former Google executive Brett Crosby said, “This is another strong signal to our customers, partners and lenders that our business is on the right trajectory to fulfill our mission of connecting investors more directly with loans.”
“Our approach benefits the entire ecosystem by providing more transparency, access and control to mortgage finance.”
Andreessen Horowitz general partner Alex Rampell claims the company is one of the fastest-growing marketplace lenders the firm’s seen having originated $165m loans in just over a year.
He said, “They have a unique distribution model that allows them to leverage existing lending networks to lower loss rates, and grow without direct marketing.”
The company says it has onboarded “thousands” of investors onto its platform and returned more than $50m to them with zero losses.
PeerStreet CEO Brew Johnson said the capital will be used to “further execute on our goal of building a world class investment platform for real estate debt.”
The company previously raised a $6.1m seed round in August last year.
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