BridgeCrowd bucks sector trend with rising profit
Peer-to-peer property lender BridgeCrowd posted a £4.1m profit in its last financial year, during a period in which most P2P lenders were loss-making.
The company’s profitability was largely due to its large cash position which saw it maintain more than £4.7m in cash at bank and in hand, according to its annual report for the year ended 31 March 2019, filed with Companies House.
In 2018, BridgeCrowd held £2.7m in cash and turned a profit of £1.36m.
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The financial report also revealed that the firm increased its head count from 15 people to 25 people over the course of the year.
BridgeCrowd offers bridging loans secured by UK properties, offering target returns for investors of up to 12 per cent per annum.
Since the platform was founded in 2012, more than £68.5m has been lent out, with no capital losses to investors.
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“The reason for our sustained growth is thanks to our responsible lending,” said chief executive Louis Alexander.
“There have been so many copycat bridges out there that have promised unrealistic rates to propel unsustainable growth. Because we have a wide variety of investors, with a range of investment appetite, we are able to lend to a larger segment of the market whilst still remaining responsible lenders.
“We seek to be the tortoise and not the hare within this industry, choosing safe, secured lending over rushed growth. The fact that we have made more profit than some of the larger, established players shows that we have a very sustainable and safe business model.”
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