Cogress becomes exclusive European funding partner for hotel chain Selina

Cogress has become the exclusive funding partner in the UK and Europe for Latin American hotel chain Selina.

The alternative finance provider has launched an investment portfolio for the group aimed at high-net-worth and sophisticated investors.

Selina, which has 105 properties in 19 countries, is aimed at millennials and provides services such as high-tech office space for remote workers and a range of activities for holidays, such as rainforest expeditions and volcano hikes.

Despite the hospitality sector having been hard hit by the Covid-19 crisis, Selina has raised £60m in new funding in the past nine months, opened new hotels and introduced products, such as a subscription model for remote workers.

“Selina is changing how we use property and Cogress is changing how we invest in it,” said Tal Orly, chief executive of Cogress.

“As a result of the pandemic, there are now 120 million remote workers globally, equating to 44 billion hotel nights and Selina, with their ultimate working destinations, are perfectly placed to take advantage.

“Our latest portfolio opens up the investment market and is structured to benefit from the long-term growth and success of Selina.”

Cogress has previously worked with Selina. In October last year, the platform embarked on an £80m partnership with the Latin-American hospitality firm, offering loan notes to fund the roll-out of hotels across the UK and Portugal.

In December, Cogress described the partnership as diversification to cater for Brexit uncertainty among investors.

This year, the platform has had to deal with Covid-19 crisis and paused new lending for a few months.

Then in July, Cogress announced that it was set to resume lending soon as it was seeking to raise over £5.5m through its investors after signing off a handful of deals.