Australian P2P platform Marketlend closes $1m investment round led by ex-EagleWood CEO Barlow

One of Australia’s leading peer-to-peer/marketplace lending platforms Marketlend has closed a $1m investment round led by ex-chief executive of Eaglewood Capital Jon Barlow.

Marketlend was founded in 2014 by Leo Tyndall. The platform allows investors to put their cash to work in chain or debtor lending facilities secured by short-term receivables. These are mostly from mid and large sized Australian businesses. The investment round represents the first injection of of external cash for Marketlend, which was previously funded by Tyndall since its launch.

Barlow has also been appointed as a non-executive member of Marketlend’s board of directors. Mati Szeszkowski, the former leader of private equity power house KKR’s European technology team, in addition to two Australian investors also participated in the round. Barlow and Szeszkowski have also committed to fund debt investments on the Marketlend platform.

He is the founder and former CEO of Eaglewood Capital Management, one of the world’s leading P2P asset-management firms with approximately $2bn of assets under management. Under Barlow’s leadership, the firm completed the first-ever securitisation of P2P loans and launched the first and largest P2P Global Investments trust, listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Barlow says he is bullish on the Australian market as a whole but also believes Marketlend’s model, which includes insurance against borrower defaults for investors and debtors, is strong.

“I was initially attracted to Marketlend because of the superior value proposition offered to credit investors on their platform – to be insured and secured while earning a strong return on their capital,” he said.

 “Furthermore, Marketlend’s world class investment structure, modelled after large, institutional quality securitizations in Australia, is among the best I have seen in the peer-to-peer lending sector globally. The P2P business model is relatively new in Australia, and I believe the company is poised to grow substantially as both institutional and retail investors discover the unique merits of this platform.”

Tyndall, CEO and founder of Marketlend says the cash injection was prompted by a need to bring a scalable marketplace lending operation to the Australian business lending space.

“Our model is based on providing three key strengths: an innovative technology solution for the financing of company receivables and payables locally and offshore; accompanying the investments with risk protection enhancements being insurance and first loss protection; and securitizing the loans on inception to meet the needs of investors including institutional investors,” he said.