UK-based P2P lending platform Lending Works has secured £2.8m in a round of funding led by Maven Capital Partners.
Participation to the round also came from Pollen Street Capital and NVM Private Equity, which supplied a combined £800,000 the investment.
Funds have been earmarked for growth, further investment into its sales and marketing efforts and to support its partnership channels, which includes loan customer acquisition via other businesses.
Founded in 2014, the company helps consumers both raise personal loans and invest into the credit market. Borrowers can get loans for vehicles, home improvements, debt consolidation, weddings, holidays and other ‘reasonable purchases’. There is a 9.9 per cent APR representative, but borrowers can get better rates, and all loans can be paid off fully at any time.
Lenders can invest their money onto the platform which will then be put into personal loans applications. Investment periods are between three and five years, earning them 4.5 per cent p.a. or 6 per cent p.a., respectively. Consumers can invest as much or little as the want.
Since its launch, the platform has lent a total of £115m, of which, £32m has been deployed in the opening half of 2018.
Maven investment director Melanie Goward said, “The firm has developed a reputation in the market of being a responsible and ethical P2P market leader, which is evidenced by it being the first major platform to have been fully authorised by the FCA and the first to have negotiated insurance cover which provides lenders with protection against borrower defaults.”
Earlier in the year, Maven Capital deployed £150,000 into the crowdfunding campaign of honcho, an insurance auction platform. The company, which raised a total of £850,000 in the crowdsale, offers a price comparison site for policies, which sees the insurer bid on the consumers they want to cover.
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