Welendus loanbook hits £100,000 in just three months

WELENDUS investors have funded £100,000 of short-term loans in just three months of its beta stage, the platform has announced.

Nadeem Siam (pictured), founder of the platform, says a full launch of the product is planned soon but Welendus has already built up more than 4,000 users.

“We are offering short-term loans from the people to the people,” Siam said at an event in London to unveil the proposition on Wednesday evening.

“We started the journey three years ago and have been up and running on beta stage for three months and so far have had more interest than expected.

“The idea is that you get a better return than in a bank and the borrower gets a better rate compared with companies like Wonga, QuickQuid or with unarranged overdraft.”

Siam, a former space engineer, explained the idea came to him when he was stuck in traffic when driving home from work.

“The high rates on payday loans and harassment of customers was all over the news,” he said.
“I was sat in traffic, thinking, why we can’t allow the people around me to help so we don’t have to go to payday lenders?

“At the time I didn’t have a banking background so I started learning about the industry and P2P lending and there was nothing for short-term loans so decided that was what I would do.”

Welendus – which aims to re-define the short-term lending market with cheaper rates and no hidden costs – received authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in October and has previously raised money on Seedrs to build the platform.