P2P lending startup Plend has collected £700,000 in pre-seed funding, which it hopes will disrupt the $24bn lending market.
The round was supplied by Tomahawk, Ascension, Haatch and NBS Venutres.
Plend claims to be the only platform in the UK that allows retail investors to directly back people. The FinTech company aims to personalise credit through life insights and make loans affordable to the 13 million people vulnerable to rip-off rates and financial hardships caused by poor credit scores.
It leverages open banking to access a person’s bank transaction history to get a better understanding of their finances. With this, it helps provide a better credit score for them and give them better loans.
Plend CEO and co-founder Rob Pasco said, “We’re on a mission to personalise credit scoring and create a fairer way to assess creditworthiness. By making smarter lending decisions based on a person’s actual behaviour and current financial position, we will be giving financial independence to millions of people currently excluded from life-changing loans.
“I’m one of the ‘13 million’ and I have a deeply personal experience with the blunt instrument that is our current outdated and odious credit scoring system. This investment is a big step towards creating a world where everyone is treated fairly and can access affordable finance.”
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