LendInvest scoops another £30.5m in pre-IPO round

The fintech property lending platform has welcomed new investors GP Bullhound and Tiger Management.

With Funding Circle’s debut on the London market imminent, fintech property lender LendInvest has closed what it calls a pre-IPO fundraise.

The £30.5m Series C debt and equity round brings in new investors GP Bullhound and Tiger Management. The former, a technology-focused investment bank, invested via a fund. Tiger is a hedge fund and family office founded by prominent US investor Julian Robertson.

Existing backer Atomico – a venture firm run by Skype founder Niklas Zennström – increased its investment in the company. Atomico led LendInvest’s £17m Series B round in 2016.

LendInvest claims, through a combination of all its fundraising efforts, to have raised well over £1bn to date. Indeed, the firm secured another £150m in lending capital from Nomura and Magnetar earlier this month.

Christian Faes (pictured), co-founder and CEO of LendInvest, said in a statement: “Having recorded a fourth consecutive annual profit, raising capital wasn't a necessity for LendInvest but by beefing up our balance sheet and bringing on some very experienced additional investors, we are well placed to capitalise on opportunities in the future.”

LendInvest announced its fourth consecutive year of profitability in July with a modest £1.9m made in the year ending 31 March 2018.

Faes has never shied away from talking up of the prospects of an IPO, but the timing of any float will surely be closely linked to the performance of fellow fintech lender Funding Circle. The business lending specialist is set to go public on the London Stock Exchange in October. It is aiming for a raise of around £300m at a valuation of roughly £1.5bn.

It is in this context that Faes’ continued comments on his own fundraise should be read: “The funding round was done at a sensible valuation, which doesn’t set us up for failure, and my co-founder and I still own approximately 70% of the company. There are also no quirky liquidation preference stacks that seek to distort true valuations. We are a straightforward player, and we’re building a big business for the long term.”