Blend Network receives £120m backing for P2P property loans

Peer-to-peer property lender Blend Network has secured a £120m funding line from a consortium of family offices, which it said it will use to scale its loanbook.

Yann Murciano, chief executive of Blend Network, said securing the record funding line shows the progress the business has made and how attractive it has become for institutional investors.

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“This fresh funding line will allow us to not only boost our origination capability significantly but also widen the breadth of services that we offer property brokers to assist them in sourcing attractive lending opportunities,” Murciano said.

“Overall, it allows us to offer greater support to help mid-sized residential property developers across the UK boost their lending capacity, which will in turn make a greater contribution to solving the country’s housing crisis.”

It comes after Blend Network raised £10m in an oversubscribed funding round in February.

The platform attracted investment in an institutional fundraise led by venture capital investor Nico Paraskevas, a former senior executive at Glencore.

Global law firm Ashurst advised Blend on both this transaction and the recent equity investment round.

“We really enjoyed supporting the Blend team scale up and raise funds to put them in the position where they have successfully secured this committed capital, and we look forward to working alongside them in the next phase of Blend’s exciting growth, Jonathan Cohen, partner at Ashurst, said.

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