Exclusive: Intriva Capital completes acquisition of Lending Works

Lending Works last night completed its sale to investment manager Intriva Capital, AltFi can exclusively reveal.

The deal, which was announced in July, means that Lending Works is now wholly owned by Intriva which plans to invest “significant additional funding” in scaling up the lending platform’s operations.

“Over the years we have become really good at acquiring borrowers,” Lending Works CEO and founder Nicholas Harding told AltFi. “Ultimately we couldn't keep up with that in terms of supply from the capital side.”

Harding, who will continue to lead the business as group CEO, says a key part of the transaction will be the scaling up of Lending Works’ institutional funding with the creation of a new division and two senior hires for the business.

Zopa’s president and former head of capital markets Jonathan Kramer has joined Lending Works as group chief operating officer to head up the institutional funding division, and will be supported by the division’s new non-executive chair Andrew Doman.

“We are building relationships with institutional funders, and they will be a significant source of funding,” said Harding, who positioned the move as a win-win for both borrowers and existing retail investors.

“We see institutional funding as a benefit for all stakeholders, whether it's our retail investors, borrowers, the regulator, as it both provides a level of liquidity such that the business can become truly sustainable and also puts the business through a high level of scrutiny.”

Since 2014 Lending Works has lent more than £200m to borrowers, largely through its embeddable finance platform for third-parties to offer its loans.

As part of the deal Doman will also be joined on the board by Intriva’s Simon Finn, Dean Walsh and Tom Saunders.