In late 2008, as global financial markets crashed, our co-founders, Christian Faes and Ian Thomas saw an opportunity. They set up a mortgage lending business called Montello Bridging Finance to fill a critical gap in short-term property finance.
The LendInvest story
Funding British property professionals since 2008
The company was built upon robust underwriting standards, and shortly after emerged as one the leading short-term finance lenders in the UK.
By 2012, we had launched two regulated funds to finance our loans, and were managing £30 million of investors’ capital. As demand continued to grow, we looked for ways to help our customers invest more efficiently.
In 2013, we brought the investment experience online. We launched the LendInvest online investment platform, empowering our investors to build their own tailored portfolios of investments in short-term property finance.
LendInvest Capital is the dedicated funds management and advisory division of the broader LendInvest business. Find out more here.
Since 2015, we’ve raised almost £40million in funding for the company. We’re backed by Atomico, the European VC firm led by the founder of Skype. We’re well-capitalised and delivering value as one of the fastest-growing alternative finance companies in the country.
A diverse capital base built to last.
Having a healthy mix of investors is critical to any lending business to operate and grow sensibly. This provides certainty of funding to our borrowers, whilst delivering great returns to our investors.
Our investors include many UK and international institutions. The due diligence they perform before they commit to investing with us is a serious endorsement of the quality of our systems and ethos.
Risk management underpins everything we do.
We make lending decisions based on years of experience. Our hands-on, mortgage market expertise is essential when it comes to assessing a loan application and creating the best investment proposition.
- Every loan we fund is secured against registered UK property.
- Our approach to risk is two-fold: first we assess the borrower, then the property. If we’re not fully satisfied by both, we won’t lend.
- Our loans are underwritten by a team of mortgage professionals with over 100 years’ industry experience.
- Our loan servicing track record has been recognised with two top tier ratings by ARC Ratings, the European credit agency.
Roy Armitage
Head of Credit
25-year mortgage market veteran
Head of Credit
25-year mortgage market veteran
“Risk management isn’t only a priority for our investors. Our borrowers count on us to assess the risks of the loans we make carefully too. Putting credit quality at the heart of what we do means everything to all of us.”