LendInvest – Company Profile

LendInvest is a leading asset management company based out of London, UK. Founded in 2012, LendInvest is focused on providing development finance, bridging loans, and buy-to-let mortgages. The latter is available to various entities including landlords, intermediaries and developers. LendInvest services are available to people across UK. One of the key USPs of the company is its targeted focus on use of technology.

With the use of advanced tech platform, LendInvest has been able to simplify the process of property finance. In earlier times, property finance used to be a complicated and time-consuming process. Things have changed dramatically with LendInvest, as most of the processes have moved online. That means fewer forms to fill and making it easier for customers to get approval for property finance. LendInvest focuses on creating better experiences for all its stakeholders that include borrowers, investors and intermediaries.

History

LendInvest story began in 2008 at the time of global financial crisis. As jobs were lost and businesses suffered, the founders thought about doing something in short-term property finance sector. The idea eventually led to the launch of Montello Bridging Finance. At that time, the startup operated as an offline bridging finance lender. The founders soon realized that things could be improved and made much faster and reliable with use of technology. With that in mind, LendInvest was launched in 2013 as an online investment platform.

Since then, the company has achieved several milestones in its journey. Till date, it has lent mortgages worth more than £3 billion. The company has helped add thousands of entirely new as well as improved homes to the housing market in United Kingdom.

Funding

With its pioneering, technology-based property finance platform, the company has been able to attract funds from various investors. It currently has the benefit of a large international capital base. It has received investments worth USD 2 billion via 20 rounds of funding. Some of the key investors include Citigroup, J.P.Morgan, HSBC and National Australia Bank.

Acquisitions

LendInvest has not made any acquisitions in recent times.

Competitors

LendInvest competes with other finance companies in UK such as Funding Circle, Landbay, Zopa, RateSetter, FundingKnight, Assetz Capital, Lending Works, LendingCrowd, Crowd2Fund and Chip Financial.

About the founders

LendInvest was founded by Christian Faes and Ian Thomas. Christian has a legal professional background, having worked as a real estate lawyer in Australia and later in UK. He currently serves as the Executive Chairman of LendInvest. He was the company’s CEO till January 2020.

Ian is a qualified chartered surveyor. He has several years of progressive experience in the field of property valuation, investment acquisition and mixed-use development. Ian currently serves as the Chief Investment Officer at LendInvest.