Buoyant summer for Assetz Capital with lending set to top £100m in three months

Peer-to-peer lender Assetz Capital has witnessed surging interest from business owners and developers in the past two months, having funded in excess of £60m to SME’s during the period.

This appetite is expected to continue over the coming weeks, with a further £40m projected before the end of August.

The Manchester-based firm has provided upwards of 30 loans over the course of the Summer months, which has led to the construction of 517 homes.

In May, Wythenshawe-based Assetz Capital announced it had lent more than £500m since its inception in 2013.

Since the announcement the total amount invested has increased to £590m – a rise of 18% in less than three months.

In order to fulfil the influx of enquiries, Assetz Capital has invested in boosting headcount since the turn of the year.

The firm has appointed six more regional relationship directors in 2018, bringing the total to 26, as well as four senior relationship managers across the UK.

Assetz Capital recently established an office in Northern Ireland in January 2018, which has provided more than £30m worth of peer-to-peer funding in the region.

This includes a £3m loan to Cobain Group, which supported the construction of eight luxury homes in Holywood.

In addition to this, the Assetz team in Scotland moved to larger premises based in central Edinburgh back in June, which will allow it to accommodate extra staff.

Chief executive Stuart Law said: “These figures indicate that peer-to-peer lending is one of the fastest growing forms of alternative finance.

“Whilst traditional lenders are moving away from commercial finance, we are making capital available to fund ambitious developers and businesses across all areas of the UK.

“This increased level of activity isn’t just down to us – our investors play a huge role.”

He added: “Our competitive rates have attracted over 28,000 users to our platform, and we recently announced that over £50m has been invested into our Innovative Finance ISA since launch.

“In turn, it is this capital fuelling the surging number of investments we make to help the UK economy flourish.”