London-based peer-to-peer business lender Wellesley & Co. announced today the appointment of Nick McAuliffe as its new managing director. Nick joins the peer-to-peer lending platform from Shawbrook Bank - a lending and savings bank founded in 2011 to serve UK SMEs and individuals - where he held the position of Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director of the consumer lending division.
Founded in 2013, Wellesley & Co. is a peer-to-peer lending platform that serves exclusively UK businesses. The platform says it only lends to to experienced, creditworthy, carefully selected commercial borrowers, and each loan is secured on tangible assets, such as residential or commercial properties. On the investor side, the minimum investment size is £10 and the minimum investment period is 18 months. Cumulative volume lent is £294,080,114 to date. AltFi has recently analysed the company in depth and a full report may be found here.
Nick will be responsible for implementing Wellesley & Co’s strategy of boosting retail investor inflows and to drive the company to its next stage of development. Graham Wellesley, Joint CEO and Chairman, said Nick’s financial experience will be crucial for the future of the platform. He commented:
“The appointment of a managing director specifically for our peer-to-peer business reflects our long-term commitment to the sector. Wellesley’s unique model of secured lending and risk-adjusted returns is proving extremely popular with our customers – Nick will expand our offering to an even wider audience in 2016.”
Wellesley currently offers loans, bonds and mini-bonds – the latter being perhaps its most well known product. Only last month, the platform closed Series 1 of its corporate mini-bonds, which is one of the largest ever on the UK market, having raised £25m since its launch in July 2014. The Series 1 Wellesley Mini-Bond was not expected to close until Q1 of 2016, but has proven exceptionally popular with investors.
As a result, Wellesley has now opened Series 2, and aims to raise up to a further £50m. Bonds bear interest rates of 7%, 7.5% and 8% (gross) per annum – as in the previous Series. Interests are paid twice a year, for a fixed term of 5, 6 and 7 years respectively. The minimum investment is set at just £100 and thereafter rises in multiples of £10.
With over 20 years experience in financial services, Nick McAuliffe argues that this is an exciting time to join a peer-to-peer platform such as Wellesley & Co.
McAuliffe says:
“The depth of financial expertise within the organisation is unique in a young industry that includes many tech start-ups. I hope to build on this growth, while ensuring Wellesley continues to offer customers innovative, high value investment products that offer consumers a genuine, accessible and trustworthy alternative to those available from the establishment providers.”
