Disruptive lender draws on strong line up of advisers and investors

Matt Mawdesley, a finance entrepreneur from Manchester, has raised £25m into a special purpose lender to offer specialist and digital-only bridging loans to commercial, corporate, and property professionals.

The equity funding to set the business up, and to build the tech platform behind Morpheus has been co-funded by Mawdesley and his business partner Lee Jones, with backing from Sandeep Malhotra, owner of ecommerce fashion business Forever Unique.

Mawdesley told TheBusinessDesk.com that the company was founded on the belief that there’s a more efficient way to provide mortgages in the specialist lending space.

The funding from the lending book has been raised from high net worth investors. 

Mawdesley was until August last year the head of strategy at regional financial giant Together and has held senior roles across the mortgage, technology, private equity, and banking sectors. 

He is being supported by former Sedulo partner and finance industry specialist Lee Jones (Co-Founder and Chief Financial Officer), Richard Lawton (Operations Director), and Ash Richardson (Head of Sales).

Also supporting the executive team in their office in the Ministry of Works in Swinton are board advisers and non-executive directors, which include Together’s former Chief Risk Officer Steve Miller, HSBC’s Head of Growth Lending Roland Emmans, and Connells Group’s Chief Information Officer Tom Pirrie.

Morpheus will initially focus on bridging loans up to £750,000 and will offer competitive rates to property investors requiring a short term unregulated loan to buy at auction, or to swoop for a quick sale. 

This approach to lending significantly reduces the time it takes to secure funding compared to the industry average of 58 days last year.

Mawdesley said the lending platform operates exclusively through digital channels to streamline every stage of the loan process and accelerate deal completions.

He said that Morpheus will leverage a range of market-leading technology in its platform, including biometric authentication and open banking, as well as digital Know Your Customer and due diligence checks.

Additionally, the team has built a bespoke property valuation tool leveraging data analytics and AI, removing paper via embedded electronic signature and automated tasks and chasers for brokers and customers. 

Matt Mawdesley

Mawdesley added: “I’m incredibly proud to launch Morpheus with the team and introduce an innovative, new way of lending.

“This digital and more efficient experience is what customers have been crying out for, and with the right people on board, we are confident in our offering going from strength to strength.

“We’ve secured strong funding and have a clear commitment to simplifying the customer journey through technology.

“Drawing on years of industry experience and understanding of the complexities that customers, brokers and lenders face, we saw an opportunity to change that by creating a solution that takes a truly digital-first approach. This ultimately will set us apart in the UK bridging lending space and therefore lead to better collective outcomes for all stakeholders.”

Pictured, L-R: Morpheus’ non-executive director Tom Pirrie; CEO and co-founder Matt Mawdesley; operations director Richard Lawton; and non-executive director Steve Miller