Assetz Capital clinches £15m British Business Investments funding, as coronavirus blocks withdrawals

UPDATE 14:30 - Assetz Capital has issued a statement on its website that stated the lender had seen "an imbalance in withdrawal and deposit activity in the last few days that was potentially becoming a trend"

"Due to current circumstances, we have taken the prudent decision to move our Access Accounts, for the time being at least, to a similar queueing system that has mostly been used by others," the statement went on.

Assetz Capital also added that it hopes to get the system back to normal in the next few days and all current, and pending positions, will be honoured. 

Assetz Capital, a UK-based peer-to-peer lender, has today announced that it has secured £15m in funding from British Business Investments.

However, shortly after the announcement, the lender blocked withdrawals from its platform, owing to the disruption caused by the coronavirus.

Customers have expressed their frustration at the company on review website Trustpilot, although some are claiming that the embattled company has taken to removing negative reviews.

A note on its website read: "Withdrawals from our Access Accounts are currently paused as we are no longer in normal market conditions as a result of Coronavirus. We expect this to be a short-term measure and will provide regular updates."

Despite the disruption, the funding will help Assetz Capital to support in excess of £100m of lending to smaller businesses and smaller housing developers.

Stuart Law, CEO of Assetz Capital, said: “To date, we've lent more than £1bn to UK businesses, providing over £100m of much needed gross income to a community of 38,000 retail and institutional investors in the process.”

"The support of British Business Investments is a further milestone in this mission, and we are grateful for their new backing towards our continuing commitment to addressing the housing crisis and SME funding gap,” he added.

This news comes just a week after it was announced that the lender had surpassed £1bn lent to SMEs and housebuilders across the UK.

Since the platform was founded in 2013, the peer-to-peer lender has seen increased levels of growth— it took the platform until June 2018, nearly five years, to reach £500m invested but only 20 months to double that figure.

As well as being a prominent SME lender, Manchester-based Assetz Capital has funded the development of nearly 5,000 homes across the UK and also supports the construction of care homes and purpose-built student accommodation.