CrowdProperty secures £15m funding line from British Business Bank
CrowdProperty has secured a £15m funding line from British Business Investments, the commercial arm of the British Business Bank, to support more housebuilding in the UK.
The peer-to-peer property development lending platform will use the money to fund loans to small and medium-sized housing developers.
“We’re delighted to be adding British Business Investments as a CrowdProperty lending partner,” said Mike Bristow, founder and chief executive of CrowdProperty. “This is another step forward for us as a business that was founded to better support the projects and developers that deserve funding.”
Read more: CrowdProperty reports strong growth despite economic climate
British Business Investments is a subsidiary of the British Investment Bank, which is a government-owned development bank. Since 2014 British Business Investments has lent more than £3.3bn to UK smaller businesses.
“Our commitment to CrowdProperty will help increase access to finance for smaller housing developers, particularly in the regions outside of London,” said Judith Hartley, chief executive of British Business Investments.
“Supporting independent operators such as CrowdProperty contributes to British Business Investments’ mission to increase the diversity and supply of finance for smaller businesses across the UK.’’
Today’s announcement followed news earlier this month that CrowdProperty had successfully reached its £400,000 target for its latest equity fundraising campaign on the Seedrs platform. The funding round has currently raised £481,000.
Read more: CrowdProperty nears Seedrs target
The platform accepts a minimum deposit of £500 from small investors which can be spread across a number of loans. Unlike some other P2P platforms, CrowdProperty plans to continue accepting small-sized deposits from private investors.
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