Ethical lender Welendus reaches £200k loan milestone in five months

Welendus, the ethical short-term lender, has announced a six-figure lending milestone five months after launching.

The Canary Wharf-based company said its peer-to-peer platform has now surpassed the £200k mark in investor-funded loans.

Welendus was established earlier this year by Nadeem Siam, a former NASA engineer and rocket scientist, to provide short-term emergency cash loans without the high interest rates and fees of a payday lender.

Since the releasing a beta version of its platform in January and achieving a full launch in April, the firm has received more than 12,000 applications for its peer-to-peer community funded loans.

Automated processes allow Welendus to remove the need for administration fees and extortionate APRs by ensuring borrowers are able to make repayments, algorithmically matching them with the most suitable lender. Reduced staffing costs and overheads, the firm said, enable it to offer lower interest rates.

CEO Nadeem Siam said: “Reaching £200k on our loan book represents a significant milestone for Welendus, having launched our peer-to-peer platform just five months ago and while still at our beta release.

“Our figures reflect a real and growing consumer demand for ethically sourced, short-term credit, and with a quarter of British adults having no savings for unexpected cash emergencies, it is vital that borrowers have access to affordable, fair, and flexible short-term finance.”

Welendus secured authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in October last year. Its launch was supported with a campaign on crowdfunding platform Seedrs.