Beauty marketplace founder joins Blend Network management team
A FORMER Morgan Stanley banker turned beauty marketplace founder is among two appointments to the board of a new peer-to-peer lending platform aiming to become the “Goldman Sachs of P2P”.
Roxana Mohammadian-Molina, a former Morgan Stanley vice president and founder of Zeebba – which arranges at-home beauty services – has joined asset-backed property lender Blend Network as business development manager.
It comes after Blend Network hired senior Lloyds banker Charles Lamplugh to supervise credit risk.
The platform, launched in January, offers asset-backed property loans to retail and high-net-worth individuals, as well as hedge funds and other institutional investors, with returns of up to 15 per cent for investors.
“This government has ambitious plans to build more homes to tackle the housing crisis,” Molina said.
“If we are to deliver the increases in the number of homes the country needs, we need to find a way of getting smaller companies building again, and I strongly believe that P2P lenders such as Blend Network are the solution.”
Read more: P2P specialist F&P mulls platform launch
Yann Murciano, chief executive of Blend Network, said one of the platform’s differentiating factors is that it is looking beyond London for development.
“Most property lenders are focused on the London market because it’s convenient,” Murciano said.
“They pulled out in places such as Northern Ireland after the 2008 financial crisis and haven’t gone back yet, but paradoxically Northern Ireland is one of the fastest growing UK property markets.
“By adding Charles and Roxana to our senior management team we’re in a stronger position to scale up our operations to further tap this lucrative market whilst simultaneously being in a position to offer an even greater service.”
Read more: A guide to P2P property investments