Peer-to-Peer lending platform JustUs is born
A PEER-to-peer lending platform has launched and is looking to raise £5.35m.
JustUs is the brainchild of financial services entrepreneur Lee Birkett, who is backed by veteran ad agency boss Sir John Hegarty.
The Alderley Edge-based business plans to provide the broadest range of peer-to-peer consumer loans and secured lending, offering best in class rates and simplicity to an extensive range of borrowers.
The fundraising, which includes raising £1m on crowdfunding platform Crowdcube, will value the business at £26m.
The bulk of the proceeds will be used for a multi-million pound advertising campaign to drive public awareness and membership of the community.
Chief marketing officer Thomas Adalbert left his role as a global principal in fintech at Google to invest in and join JustUs, as Sir John Hegarty, a founding partner of Saatchi & Saatchi, has also invested in the business and leads the brand team.
The platform, which will create up to 130 jobs in the next three years, is expecting to deliver a loan book of around £254m by year four of the plan – during Beta testing of the site it attracted £130m of borrower applications from a marketing spend of £150,000.
JustUs says its underwriting process ensures that an appropriate risk rating is applied to the potential borrower and where necessary further security is sought from the borrower or an appropriate personal guarantor.
Borrowers must be in a position to make the payments on the loan and provide supporting evidence. They must be in full time employment, self-employment or be in receipt of a private pension.
The platform is an evolution of Birkett’s established and FCA-regulated peer-to-peer lending platform eMoneyUnion.com. Around £2m has already been invested in the platform since inception.
Birkett, who has 26 years’ experience in the financial services sector, says: “JustUs is for everyone, it’s an exciting evolution for the sector, which I believe can only become more relevant as consumers see that despite the worst financial crisis in a generation, banks and bankers’ behaviour hasn’t really changed.
“I believe we are completely disrupting the status quo with a range of accessible products for borrowers from a comprehensive range of backgrounds and credit history.
“JustUs is democratic, by the people, for the people. Savers are uninspired by their humdrum returns. We can give them access to the higher returns by bringing them together with a broad mix of consumer, guarantor and secured loans.”
Adalbert added: “The alternative finance sector is evolving and growing and that is why I have given up my job with Google to invest my time and my money in to JustUs.”
The company has received legal advice from Field Fisher in Manchester.
