LendInvest passes £500m mark with long-term warehouse facility from Citi

LendInvest, a marketplace platform for property finance, has agreed a long-term financing facility with global bank, Citi, paving its way to enter the UK’s £40bn buy-to-let market.

LendInvest manages over £500m of lending capital on behalf of its institutional investors, creating the largest institutional capital base of any UK fintech lender on record.

Citi joins a broad range of institutional investors investing in LendInvest’s secured property loans, including Macquarie Bank, Merseyside Pension Fund and a listed UK challenger bank.

Chris Philp, PPS to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, commented: “This partnership between LendInvest and Citi is a great example of major institutions getting behind UK fintech in a serious way, and confirms London’s status as a leading destination for global investment.

“LendInvest’s push into buy-to-let is a great example of FinTech moving into more hard-to-disrupt markets that could be otherwise left behind by financial innovation.”

In addition to institutional funding lines, LendInvest allows individuals and investors to access its investment opportunities via its online investment platform for high-net-worth investors, a discretionary fund, and a £500m bond programme.

To date, investors have funded over £1.1bn of loans to help borrowers buy, build or renovate 4,000 UK homes.

Under the terms of the financing, Citi will provide a warehouse funding line to LendInvest that will be used to finance specialist BTL loans, designed for professional landlords and investors.

Initially, the BTL product will be piloted with a select group of mortgage brokers, with the loans being rolled out to the wider market over the coming months.

Christian Faes, co-founder and CEO at LendInvest, added: “Institutional capital coming onto our platform from some of the world’s largest institutions is the ultimate validation of the quality of the lending we do.

“This new funding line from Citi shows how our business has evolved from disruptive FinTech startup to established scale-up business as we move towards the mainstream mortgage market.”

LendInvest’s BTL product will be supported by an online mortgage application and case management portal.

LendInvest was advised by the financial services corporate finance team at EY.