LendInvest in the Press: Chinese Tech Investment, Davos 2016 and Disgruntled Landlords

January has been a very busy month yet again for LendInvest, with mentions in The Independent, Forbes and City AM. Here we take a look at some of the articles we’ve featured in:

Davos 2016

Our co-founders Christian Faes and Ian Thomas jetted off to Davos for the World Economic Forum 2016 – an annual meeting of the world’s leaders to discuss pressing issues. The theme this year was The Fourth Industrial Revolution, with a focus on how technology will change existing sectors and shape the future. Christian and Ian were there representing UK FinTech with Innovate Finance and attended a fringe event organised by TechCrunch. LendInvest was featured in an article by Lawrence Wintermeyer, the Chief Executive of Innovate Finance, who argued why London fintech can transform the 21st century in City AM.

Chinese Investment into UK FinTech

This month the press reported that Chinese investors are to set up a £500 million venture capital fund in London to invest in UK technology startups. Launched by Cocoon Networks, the fund will concentrate on FinTech and BioTech sectors, as well as other exciting startups in creative industries. The aim is to find the next big ‘unicorns’ – startups with valuations in excess of £1bn. In June 2015 LendInvest received a £22 million Series A investment from Chinese company Beijing Kunlun Tech, showing there is lots of interest in FinTech from Chinese investors. We were mentioned in Forbes, the Financial Times, The Telegraph and TechCrunch.

The Future of Alternative Lending

LendInvest was also featured in The Independent this month; both articles discussed the future of alternative lending. The first article – Peer-to-peer lending could suit some disgruntled landlords – examined investing with LendInvest as an alternative for landlords who are dissatisfied with the government’s forthcoming punitive tax changes on Buy-to-Let.

The second article – Alternative finance must get over the final hurdles and be alternative no more – looked at the future of alternative finance, including the Innovative Finance ISA and new regulations.

The UK Housing Crisis

Our CEO Christian Faes shared his opinion in City AM on the potential of alternative finance to tackle Britain’s housing crisis. At the start of the year the government announced plans to directly commission thousands of new homes on publicly owned land, but Christian argues access to land isn’t the only barrier facing small-scale developers. He writes; “You can’t buy the land, however accessible it is, if you haven’t the funds to finance it. So while I applaud the Prime Minister’s plans to unlock more land, we should also focus on helping developers to buy it in the first place.”

LendInvest Hires In-house Legal Counsel

We’re excited to welcome Ruth Pearson – our first in-house legal counsel – to the team. Ruth joins us from a top City law firm and will be working closely with our Heads of Compliance and Credit to create the most streamlined and efficient legal processes. A thorough, in-house understanding of regulatory changes and legal provisions will make sure we are always best placed to help borrowers and investors alike to receive the highest quality service from our platform. The news of our new hire was featured in Crowdfund Insider, City AM and Mortgage Introducer, among others.

PropTech

With the date of our first PropTech meetup getting closer, our CEO Christian Faes wrote a piece for The Memo weekly newsletter titled “The #PropTech Diary: Don’t tell me not to shout about PropTech from the rooftops.” He says; “LendInvest won’t be distracted in our campaign to bring PropTech to the forefront this year. Who knows, unlike so many of the best new year intentions, this may be one resolution with enough firepower to last all year.”

For all the latest news, follow our Twitter handle @LendInvest for up-to-date information and articles.