Landbay Secures $2.35M From Omni For Its Buy-to-let P2P Lending Platform

We covered the launch of Landbay in April and it’s since gone on to bring the peer-to-peer lending model to buy-to-let mortgages, among a raft of other competitors piling into this space. The idea is that it offers lenders more attractive returns compared to banks.

It’s now raised £1.5 million (USD$2.35 million) from Omni Partners an alternatives investment manager with direct experience of the UK property lending market.

Earlier this year Landbay raised £250,000 of seed capital via the Seedrs crowd-equity platform.

It’s also now joined the UK Peer to Peer Finance Association (P2PFA), alongside founding members Zopa, Ratesetter and Funding Circle. This requires its members to operate by a strict set of rules in order to promote high standards of conduct and consumer protection, beyond those required by the FCA.

John Goodall, cofounder and CEO of Landbay says the round was “strategic.”

P2P lenders have sprung up in recent years. Zopa in the UK pioneered the model, and has raised significant funding. And the P2P finance model has even spread to insurance.

Competitors to Landbay’s model are Assetz and LendInvest, however, they focus mainly on lending for commercial property and developers, not the residential buy to let mortgage market. Some £21 billion went though buy-to-let mortgage lending in the UK in 2013.

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