Landbay secures £5m investment to grow buy-to-let business

Landbay has attracted more than £5m of funding from a mix of institutional and high-net worth investors and existing crowdfunding shareholders.

The alternative buy-to-let lender has raised £4.7m from institutional and HNW investors and £400,000 from existing shareholders exercising pre-emption rights to purchase shares through Seedrs.

Landbay said half of the funds raised would go towards developing technology and the rest for marketing, brand development and general operating expenses.

It comes after the platform agreed a new funding line with an asset manager last month to help it meet the increasingly high demand for its buy-to-let mortgages ahead of the end of the stamp duty holiday.

Under the new deal, the unnamed asset manager will aim to fund in excess of £300m per year of Landbay-originated mortgages.

This is the latest institutional investment unveiled by Landbay, following a bank funding deal announced in July and a £1bn funding line from an unnamed City investor in July 2019.

Landbay closed its platform to retail investors last December, effectively marking its exit from the peer-to-peer lending market. Goodall told Peer2Peer Finance News at the time that the firm had made a strategic decision to look at different funding sources and had found a backer to buy its retail loans sooner than expected.