Peer-to-peer mortgage company LendInvest announces £17m investment from Skype founder’s company Atomico
Peer-to-peer (P2P) mortgage company LendInvest has announced a new investment worth £17m.
The company's second equity investment has come from Atomico, a venture capital investment firm launched by Niklas Zennström, who founded Skype.
It comes nine months after LendInvest raised £22m from Chinese technology company Beijing Kunlun. And LendInvest said it brings institutional investment to more than £200m in less than three years.
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Christian Faes, who founded LendInvest with Ian Thomas, described the Atomico backing as an "awesome opportunity".
He added: "Atomico is a rare example of a VC firm whose founder has first-hand experience of building a multi-billion dollar, fast growth technology company, and that was hugely attractive to us.
"We have only scratched the surface of how technology will make mortgages a better, faster and more transparent consumer experience for borrowers and investors.”
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The founders said Zennström's background, founding Skype, was "hugely attractive to us".
As part of the deal, Atomico partner Mattias Ljungman – who co-founded Atomico in 2006 with Zennström – is joining the LendInvest board.
Launched in 2013, LendInvest has lent £560m to finance 2,100 properties in the UK.
Ljungman said: "We're impressed with Christian and Ian's vision and ambition to disrupt the established lending industry.
"Their lending and borrowing marketplace is bringing speed, efficiency and transparency to a traditionally cumbersome process.
"We're excited about working with the team to ensure that their great product is underpinned by the best technology, and to take their business to the next level.”