Flender nears £2m funding target
FLENDER is reportedly close to reaching its £2m target for its latest equity funding round.
The Irish peer-to-peer lender has raised around €400m (£358m) from its own platform, structured as a series of convertible loan notes.
It is close to agreeing terms for the remaining funds, according to Indepenendent.ie.
As Peer2Peer Finance News reported back in August, Flender’s founder Oli Cavanagh said the money raised would help with an eventual UK launch.
“We’re trying to cope with the Irish demand and build out the team first in order to be able to manage the UK demand, assuming it’s proportional,” he said at the time.
Flender launched in Ireland earlier this year and has gained full authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority in anticipation of its UK expansion. The firm raised £500,000 on crowdfunding platform Seedrs earlier this year.
Read more: Flender completes first wave of funded SME loans
Once launched in the UK, the platform also plans to offer an Innovative Finance ISA that will mirror the platform’s average yield rate of between eight per cent and 14 per cent.
Flender is also considering running equity crowdfunding campaigns for other businesses in Ireland, like Seedrs and Crowdcube do in the UK.
“Nobody in Ireland is doing it so if there is demand then we would definitely look at it although our core business at the moment is lending rather than equity-raise campaigns,” said chief executive Kristjan Koik in the Independent.ie report.
“We’ve been very focused in terms of what we want to do and we will continue to be focused on this. Lending and bringing cheaper finance to SMEs, while letting the public earn a good return.”