Wellesley & Co: Get ready for proptech 3.0 with “elite survivors”
WELLESLEY & Co has cited predictions that there will be consolidation in the proptech sector, as firms drop by the wayside leaving “a crop of elite survivors”.
The alternative property lender said it expects the rest of 2017 and early 2018 to be “exciting for the progression of property technology” with lots of M&A activity.
Proptech – or property technology – overlaps with peer-to-peer lending, as the property-focused P2P platforms could also be defined as proptech firms.
“As the year progresses, it is predicted that some of the UK’s property giants will invest in or merge with start-up proptech companies,” Wellesley & Co said in a blog post on its website this week.
“This is likely to come off of the back of Zoopla’s £1,000,000 investment into ‘four promising and innovative property technology companies’ to help elevate their development and improve the Zoopla experience.”
Read more: Wellesley & Co reports £300m of lending since start of 2016 with no losses
P2P lender Landbay, which specialises in buy-to-let mortgages, was one of the four companies that gained Zoopla’s backing last year. It also partnered with the property website last September on its ‘Zoopla Invest’ channel.
Wellesley & Co, which put its P2P activities “on pause” earlier this year ahead of gaining Financial Conduct Authority approval, cited “experts” who predict that a number of proptech firms will disappear in the coming months and years.
“Currently, experts believe proptech has escalated to proptech 2.0,” the firm said.
“They comment that clever and hard-working people backed by billions of pounds worth of investment is undoubtedly a great recipe for success and explains the exciting changes seen in the way property is traded, used, and operated.
“However, it is predicted that money and proptech firms will be lost as the months and years pass, resulting in a crop of elite survivors being left.
“Proptech 3.0, the cream of the proptech crop, will have a radical impact on an industry that has been infamously conservative and slow-paced for too long.”
Wellesley & Co currently offers a property mini-bond and an innovative property bond that can be held in an ISA wrapper.
Founder Graham Wellesley recently told Peer2Peer Finance News that the firm expects to gain full approval from the City regulator “very soon” and will re-launch its P2P platform soon, although it does not have an exact date scheduled.
