RateSetter’s valuation tops £200m as it looks ahead to its IFISA launch.
RateSetter, one of the UK’s “big three” peer-to-peer lenders, has scooped £13m in equity investment from existing backers. Investors in the round included well-known fund managers Woodford Investment Management and Artemis.
The two funds first backed RateSetter with a £20m investment in March 2015, in a round that valued the platform at £150m. This latest round takes the firm’s valuation to over £200m, with £50m in equity capital raised to date.
RateSetter recently appointed Paul Manduca, acting chairman of global FTSE 100 insurer Prudential, as its non-executive chairman. CEO Rhydian Lewis (pictured) told the FT that the appointment was one step on the way to an IPO, although he added that there’s no rush.
Commenting on the £13m fundraise, Lewis said: “It is important to keep up the momentum of investing in our platform and this further injection of capital, coupled with the appointment of Paul Manduca as chairman, lays the ground for an important new phase of development for our business."
RateSetter has lent a cumulative total of £1.9bn since launching in 2010, according to AltFi Data, and is widely regarded as one of the UK’s “big three” P2P firms. But while the other two members in that trinity (Zopa and Funding Circle) have recently been fully authorised by the regulator, RateSetter continues to operate under interim permissions. FCA rules dictate that it will need to achieve full authorisation prior to launching its Innovative Finance ISA offering.
