Ireland-based P2P mobile lending platform Flender has raised over half of the capital for its funding round, pulling in around £1.2m, so far.
Flender, which is still looking for contributions from investors, hopes to raise a total of £2m, according to Flender founder Oli Cavanagh. The company is raising the equity at a valuation of £8m, he said. Some of the institutional investors taking part in the investment include: World First’s CEO Jonathan Quin, and an unnamed government organisation.
Of the capital already raised, £400,000 came from the company’s own crowdfunding campaign, which was raised within three weeks Cavanagh added. The crowdsale saw contributions from just over 20 investors, who are all either existing users wishing to buy a stake, or previous equity investors wishing to increase their hold. The crowdfund was a convertible note, offering a 20 per cent discount.
Flender is a P2P lending solution which allows both lenders and borrowers to set their rates. Through the solution any business or individual is able to launch a campaign, which can then be funded by lenders they select.
The company’s new crowdfunding solution is the only one in Ireland, with other businesses having to use UK-based solutions, like Seedrs. This lack of platforms available has led the company to launch an equity crowdraising solution for Irish companies.
Cavanagh said, “We’ve funded around 30 different businesses so far from a crowd finance perspective, which is a P2P finance, and on top of that a lot of individuals. Now we are looking to do equity crowdfunding for businesses as well, which is new and we’re the first company in Ireland to do that. But also on top of that we are the first property-backed P2P lender in Ireland.”
With the capital raised from the funding round, Flender is hoping to expand by scaling up operations in sales, marketing and funding many more businesses. Equity will also be used to promote its new vertical into property-based P2P lending.
“We already have FCA authorisation for the UK, so we will expand there, and we are also looking at other countries in Europe whose compliance fits ours. The platform is already multi—country and it is quite easy for us to expand into other countries just according to their compliance regulations,” he added.
One of the aspects that makes the company’s solution unique is its reward system. So, when a business is looking to raise some equity, they start by approaching their own customers, offering interest and rewards.
He said, “We’re the only company lender to tie in rewards, so if you participate in this campaign you’ll also get, say a 10 per cent discount on orders for the next three months. We have a rewards function built in, which is well-known in the crowdfunding startups like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, but no one has done it in P2P lending before. So, on top of your 10 per cent interest you’re getting 10 per cent discounts on new orders from the business if you participate in its Flender campaign.”
This investment follows on from Flender’s crowdfund on Seedrs last year, where the company raised £501,700 at a £4.9m valuation. If Flender was to reach its £2m target for the current raise, it would bring total capital to £3m.
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