BrickVest signs deal with German real estate lender
BRICKVEST, the peer-to-peer real estate platform, has partnered with Europe’s third-largest property lender Berlin Hyp to grow its investor base.
It coincides with the completion of a £7m fundraising round, in which Berlin Hyp was the lead investor.
Berlin Hyp is the real estate finance provider to Germany’s largest banking group, the Savings Banks Finance Group, which is used by half the German population.
The fundraising is one of the largest series A fundraisings in the property tech sector.
BrickVest plans to use the funds and the Berlin Hyp partnership to grow its investor base, execute its business growth plan and expand its deal catalogue.
The platform said its latest round of fundraising was significantly oversubscribed, following the company’s £2m first close in March 2017. Berlin Hyp may seek to extend their stake in BrickVest at a later date, it said.
Emmanuel Lumineau, chief executive at BrickVest, said the additional funding will enable the business to continue investing in technology and scale its platform “in line with soaring levels of demand for accessible real estate investment”.
Lumineau believes Brexit will present investment opportunities in the commercial real estate sector.
Since the EU referendum vote in June 2016, BrickVest said there has been a 72 per cent increase in investors joining the platform.
A poll of institutional investors by BrickVest suggests that 40 per cent plan to increase their investment allocation to European commercial real estate over the next 12 months and 39 per cent felt Brexit would increase investment opportunities.
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Berlin Hyp, which has acquired a minority stake in BrickVest, said the deal enables it to boost its offering across the equity, mezzanine and senior debt space. The real estate lender may extend its stake at a later date.
Sascha Klaus, chairman of the board of management of Berlin Hyp, added: “For us as a bank, this partnership is a way to further implement our digitisation strategy, expand our value chain and tap into further growth potential.”
Last month BrickVest announced a partnership with German commercial property firm BEOS to offer a new investment fund to BEOS employees.
The platform said it intends to offer sponsors in the fintech, regtech and proptech sectors a range of services.
Read more: BrickVest builds on institutional expertise