Festive Focus series: Bdaily chats with Uma Rajah of CapitalRise

As part of this month’s Festive Focus series at Bdaily, we caught up with Uma Rajah, the co-founder and CEO of CapitalRise, on how 2018 has been for the company.

Can you introduce yourself and your business to our readers?

“I’m Uma, serial entrepreneur and lover of all things fintech. I’ve worked in all sorts of businesses in my time, from fast moving consumer goods to finance, but I’m particularly excited to introduce you to my latest venture.

“CapitalRise is an investment platform that gives savvy investors exclusive access to prime property investment opportunities, in the strongest performing locations such as Mayfair, Knightsbridge and the Home Counties.

“We have modernised and democratised the prime property investment space to give more investors a chance to make their money work harder, by earning attractive and often double-digit returns on as little as £1,000.

“We’ve also introduced an Innovative Finance ISA so that our investors can enjoy tax-free returns.”

What was your company’s biggest achievement of the year?

“It’s really hard to pick just one, as 2018 has been an unforgettable year for us with the business really having garnered momentum and delivered some amazing results.

“Highlights include more than doubling our customer base, raising £2m of equity to accelerate the growth of the business, and building up a team of fantastically talented people to turbo boost our potential.

“On top of this, we’ve significantly increased our lending, funded our fastest ever raise of £1.5m in only 45 hours and successfully repaid over £4m to investors - so there’s a lot of milestones to choose from!

“I think if I have to choose the one thing I am most proud of, it is CapitalRise achieving a five-star Trustpilot rating, based on positive reviews of our happy investors.

“The common objective that unites everyone in the company is our desire to go above and beyond to impress our customers with our product and service. This is what gets us out of bed in the morning and gives us the greatest satisfaction.

“If we continue to focus single-mindedly on our loyal member-base, then everything else we want to achieve should naturally follow.”

How would you approach 2018 differently, given the chance?

“2018 was a tough year for many in the Prime real estate sector, but these challenges provided great opportunities for companies like ours.

“If I had the chance again, I would have tried to move even faster and grow more quickly in order to better capitalise on the opportunities that 2018 presented to us.

“But we all wish we had a crystal ball and at the end of the day you should never regret being prudent.”

What are your company’s plans for the new year?

“Our members want access to a greater volume of high quality investment opportunities that have passed our thorough due diligence process - and we plan to give them more.”

What’s your favourite Christmas song?

“It’s got to be Fairytale of New York – who doesn’t love it!”