£1bn milestone for peer to peer lender
Business lender Assetz Capital has surpassed the £1bn mark for lending to SMEs and housebuilders across the UK, with more than £350m being deployed in the North since 2013.
As part of its business lending, Assetz Capital has been a supporter of the UK housing market, funding a total of 4,846 new homes since its inception. In the North alone, Assetz Capital has funded over 340 SMEs, as well as the construction of more than 2,000 new homes.
Assetz Capital funds its property secured loans through a network of more than 38,000 retail and institutional investors.
The firm was founded by entrepreneur Stuart Law and colleagues in 2013 during the fallout of the global financial crisis.
Law said he believed the banks were no longer able to serve their original purpose in that interest rates were at all-time lows and business finance was often inaccessible. He explained he wanted to provide fairer returns to investors and make a positive impact on the economy through re-enabling lending to credit-worthy borrowers.
Assetz Capital now employs 110 staff and has 40 people in the field nationwide to meet with borrowers and assess their funding requirements.
Stuart Law, CEO and founder of Assetz Capital, said: “Peer to peer lending – having started out as a financial initiative by the Government to help address the huge shortfall in business lending – has now grown to become one of the most viable forms of alternative finance in the UK.
“In the seven years that we’ve been operating, we’ve continued to see low interest rates and insufficient business lending from the banks, and there are no signs of this changing any time soon. Our peer-to-peer model will continue to support economic growth through UK businesses and housebuilders in 2020 and beyond.
“What separates us, and other successful lenders, from those who haven’t succeeded over the years, is the deep lending and business experience of our team – we don’t do tick box lending, nor lend by computer algorithms, but instead lend through career-long, real-world experience to sound borrowers.
David Reed, relationship director at Assetz Capital in Yorkshire, said: “Yorkshire has seen record levels of property development in recent years, especially with the increased migration of people to major cities like Leeds and Sheffield. The appetite for both residential and commercial property seems set to remain strong in the coming months, and we have plenty of funds to deploy in order to satisfy this demand across Yorkshire.
“The region also plays host to some of the UK’s most innovative businesses, with particular strongholds in technology, life sciences and manufacturing, and we look forward to supporting more of these companies as we move towards our next milestone.”
