Assetz Capital aims to raise £1m on Seedrs as it mulls IPO
ASSETZ Capital is aiming to raise £1m through its third equity crowdfunding campaign via Seedrs to support its staff and product expansion plans, with a possible stock market listing on the horizon.
More than half of its target for the current campaign has already been funded on the Seedrs platform.
The property-secured P2P lender’s latest funding round is a precursor to a larger planned funding round targeting institutional investors. The proceeds will be used to support the next phase of growth for the P2P property lender, including growing headcount from the 100 it has currently to more than 200 staff.
The cash will also be used as working capital, to support marketing costs, permit advanced cashflow funding of some investor loan losses and recovery costs, strengthen the balance sheet, and invest in technology. This will include “resources to accelerate on-boarding on new Lending-as-as-Service partners and other strategic software initiatives”, Assetz said.
It also plans to launch a new line of smaller, mass market secured lending products which is says will be “suited to the large marketplace of mainstream commercial mortgages and residential property refurbishment loans sourced through national brokers and distributors.”
Pointing to Funding Circle’s IPO, Assetz said “an IPO also continues to be evaluated as a future step”.
“We believe that we have now achieved critical mass and have proven our business model – having been profitable in both of the last two financial years to March 2018, a rare achievement in fintech – and we believe that the opportunity for our further growth to meet the multi-billion funding gap faced by SMEs remains very substantial,” the firm said.
“Last year we have seen revenues for the business grow again. We are reinvesting any profits at present in order to drive the continued rapid growth of the company and with the aim of making us the dominant business in our sectors. As we continue to grow and mature, and also onboard substantial new institutional lending capital alongside retail funds, we expect profits to grow.”
Led by chief executive Stuart Law (pictured), Assetz has already raised more than £5m on Seedrs, beating a £2m target to raise £3.2m in funding in 2015 and doubling its target in 2017 to raise £2m.
The firm said in March that it was set to welcome at least £110m in institutional investments over the coming months as part of an ongoing expansion plan.
This is in addition to its recently-announced funding partnership with German bank Varengold.
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Assetz says its 30,000 lenders have funded over £750m of facilities and earned £70m since it launched in 2013. Its Innovative Finance ISA now has over 4,500 investors and £70m invested.