Posted on 14.01.2014, by Rob Warlow

The number of new peer-to-peer lending sites continues to increase with the recent launch of Lending Works.

Lending Works, which focuses on the personal loan market, is headed by a team from the banking, accountancy and finance industries, and it aims to provide a simple, flexible and transparent way for users to lend and borrow money.

In line with the traditional P2P model Lending Works’ online platform allows people to lend their savings for a competitive return to creditworthy people requiring finance. Personal loan borrowers are prudently selected by the company’s team of highly experienced underwriters using advanced underwriting techniques and electronic credit scoring. Loan terms and lending periods are both one to five years.

To kick start the business Lending Works completed a successful pre-launch fundraising round raising £3.5 million from venture capital and angel investors.

Rates are promised to be highly competitive for both lenders and borrowers and the company is targeting a net return to lenders of approximately 5.1% AER when their money is lent for five years.

Whilst the platform is there to fund personal financial needs research shows that many business owners do resort to using personal funds as a source of business capital.

You can find out more about Lending Works here.

Posted on 20.11.2013, by Rob Warlow

The crowdfunding and peer-to-peer (P2P) loan market has been very much focused on providing short to medium term loans for traditional business needs such as additional working capital and asset/equipment purchases.

However, in a sign that the P2P market is maturing, some players are starting to venture into property funding.

Funding Circle, the most recognised marketplace for business loans, has signalled its intent to move into the property finance space, with the hire of Luke Jooste, formerly Commercial Director at Barclays Business. With an extensive experience in the property sector Luke has been brought in by Funding Circle to develop a property-focused offering.

Depending on what exactly the product is it should be a good source of property funding and will be music to the ears of businesses operating in this industry who have been badly serviced by the traditional High Street banks. I suspect the service will initially focus on secured bridging loans which is an easy toe in the water.

The P2P bridging market though does have a new confirmed entrant. Existing bridging lender Wellesley has launched a peer-to-peer lending service with the aim of funding its short-term loans.

Private investors will be able to fund bridging and development property loans of up to £1m. The shareholders of Wellesley are committing £5m so they will invest along side private investors.

The property being funded will be taken as security and sold if borrowers default. In this instance, the private lenders will be paid off first, with Wellesley’s shareholders being repaid from the remainder.

You can find out more here, Wellesley