Peer-to-peer property lending platform BLEND Network has completed a £10m late-seed round of investing.
Launching earlier this year, BLEND’s objective is to make the property market more efficient by offering lenders access to property-secured loans which the firm says has delivered 12 per cent return p.a.
BLEND’s late-seed round was supported by notable investors such as Cyrus Ardalan, Chairman of OakNorth Bank and Ctigroup Global Markets as well as Jean-Phillippe Blochet, co-founder of leading macro hedge-fund Brevan Howard.
The £10m raised will be used to grow BLEND’s product development in the company’s bid to be the largest P2P property lending platform. The newly raised capital will also be used to expand its deal underwriting and marketing efforts.
BLEND hopes to be a key driver for the financial liberalisation within property lending, offering investment opportunities to retail investors which have difficulties accessing deals primarily aimed at institutional investors. Private lenders can co-invest from £1,000 with high net worth lenders in the same deal.
Yann Murciano, Chief Executive at BLEND Network, said in a statement: “Each of our new investors brings a lot of experience to the table. They are all lenders on our deals, which we believe is the right thing to do in order to ensure that we maintain the quality of the deals on our platform.”
