Shojin in talks with private equity firms over new fund

Shojin is in talks with several private equity firms about raising a new fund for junior lending, Peer2Peer Finance News can reveal.

The peer-to-peer lender, which specialises in property development, said that talks are in the early stages at the moment.

Jatin Ondhia, chief executive and co-founder of Shojin, said that the platform has not historically done much work with institutions such as private equity firms.

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“We deal mostly with family offices in the institutional space,” he said. “Family offices are always on the lookout for alternative products with good returns and well managed risk so we’re growing rapidly in that space, while continuing to grow the retail platform.”

He added that Shojin’s investor split is approximately 70 per cent retail versus 30 per cent institutional, and said that the platform does not intend to move away from its retail base.

“We are keen to make the retail platform work because that is the huge opportunity in fintech,” Ondhia said.

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“A lot of firms end up moving away from retail and into the institutional space because it’s easier, which is fine from a business perspective, but then they are the same as hundreds of other firms and are not really changing anything in the world. We want to stay heavily focussed on retail.”

Last year, Shojin announced plans to launch a Jersey-incorporated fund as part of its plan to expand its core offerings.

The platform has been on a global expansion push over the past year, inking partnerships in India and the Middle East. In its most recent financial report, Shojin reported an 85 per cent increase in profits, and a 133 per cent rise in turnover.