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BLEND completes £10m seed financing

BLEND Network, the peer-to-peer property lending platform, has completed £10m of late-seed round financing.

The platform launched earlier this year to make the property market more efficient while saying it would deliver double-digit return to investors.

The investment round, which was oversubscribed, saw a combination of equity to scale the business, and commitments to lend on the platform.

This was supported by a number of notable investors including Cyrus Ardalan, former vice chairman of Barclays and current chairman of OakNorth Bank and Citigroup Global Markets Ltd; the family office of former CEO and current chairman of Publicis Group, Maurice Levy; and Jean-Phillipe Blochet, co-founder of Brevan Howard, one of the leading “macro hedge funds” which at its peak had $40bn in assets under management.

This fresh investment will help BLEND Network expand its deal underwriting and marketing efforts, as well as broaden and accelerate product development with the aim of establishing itself as the number one peer-to-peer lending platform by connecting lenders and borrowers in the property space.

BLEND Network’s platform enables lenders to invest in property-secured loans giving an average 12% return p.a according to BLEND.

Private lenders are able to co-invest from £1,000 with high net worth lenders in the same deal, in a move that BLEND describes as leading to the increasing ‘democratisation’ of investing.

Prior to this, retail investors had difficulty accessing the more exclusive deals only available to institutional investors offering very large sums. This platform will allow anyone with discretionary capital to co-invest in deals while also allowing small and medium-sized entrepreneurs to access finance to fund their projects.

Cyrus Ardalan, chairman of OakNorth Bank and Citigroup Global Markets Ltd, said: “BLEND Network takes peer-to-peer lending to a new level, providing investors with a highly transparent and innovative platform.”

Yann Murciano, chief executive at BLEND Network, said: “We are very excited to get the support from such high-profile investors.

“Each of our new investors brings a lot of experience to the table. Furthermore, they are all lenders on our deals, which we believe is the right thing to do in order to ensure that we maintain the quality of the deals on our platform.

“This year, we have proven the model. Next year, it’s all about scaling it while maintaining the high level of enhanced due diligence for which we pride ourselves.”

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