Andy Murray serves up new investments in two UK fintech startups

British tennis champion Andy Murray has pledged his support to two early-stage businesses as part of his relationship with Seedrs.

Murray is investing undisclosed amounts into innovative UK fintech companies Investly and Landbay.

As a result, Murray’s growth investment portfolio on Seedrs now exceeds 30 British businesses.

Landbay, the Zoopla-backed mortgage marketplace lender, direct-matches retail and institutional investors’ money into buy-to-let mortgages using peer-to-peer technology.

Landbay first received backing from Andy Murray two years ago. This recent investment sees Murray exercising his preemptive rights in Landbay’s latest equity round.

Investly is a pan-European marketplace for invoice financing, helping SMEs finance their 30-180 day invoices through an easy to use marketplace.

Investly’s target customers have to wait an average of 56.7 days to get paid by their customers directly. Investly solves this problem by paying them in hours. Businesses on-boarded from January 2017 have already grown their turnover at an average of 98% to date.

Murray said: “I have long been interested in backing companies that offer tech solutions and both Investly and Landbay do that.

“I can really see the value in Investly for small businesses – the early days of a business can be really tough so helping them with cash flow makes sense to me and will hopefully enable more small businesses to succeed.

“I am excited to be maintaining my shareholding in Landbay, as the company’s growth and achievements so far has been extremely impressive.”

Siim Maivel, founder and CEO of Investly, added: “The team is thrilled to have Andy Murray invest in our equity crowdfunding campaign. Andy has built up an impressive portfolio on Seedrs over the last few of years and we’re delighted he has backed Investly.”

John Goodall, co-founder and CEO of Landbay, also commented: “Seeing Andy Murray exercising his pre-emption rights to back Landbay for a third time is very exciting.

“We have recently surpassed £100m mortgages funded on the platform and have a number of new developments in the pipeline. It’s a pleasure to have Andy onboard as a shareholder.”

Jeff Kelisky, CEO at Seedrs, concluded: “We’re delighted to see Andy growing his early-stage investment portfolio on Seedrs.

“He is a great example of an investor who is thoughtful in diversifying across a number of sectors and stages. We look forward to supporting his investment strategy and seeing what he backs next.”