Don't invest unless you're prepared to lose money. This is a high-risk investment. You may not be able to access your money easily and are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong. Take 2 minutes to learn more.

The Assetz Capital platform is no longer open to investment from individual investors. No new investments into peer-to-peer loans are possible and, as a result, no new funds should be deposited. The existing loan book relating to the Retail platform is now in run-off and this will, over time, deliver the return of capital to investors. Full information can be found here . Existing Retail lenders can still log in, view information regarding their account and loan holdings and operate their account in accordance with the information regarding the run-off provided on the link above. Please see this important message regarding the currency of the information on the pages on this website.

The rise of UK peer-to-peer lending bolstered by American private equity firm investment

An American private equity firm has bolstered the rise of peer-to-peer lending with a plan to invest £150 million in British small businesses.

Victory Park Capital, of Chicago, is working in partnership with the Stockport-based Assetz Capital, which directly links investors with small companies seeking loans.

Their five-year agreement is the latest example of an institutional investor following the example set by savers, who have been turning to peer-to-peer platforms for better returns than those offered by bank savings accounts. The alternative finance market, which includes crowdfunding and other online lenders, provided £1.74 billion to more than 7,000 small and medium-sized companies last year, according to Nesta, the innovation charity.

The Assetz deal with VPC comes after a separate tie-up with Interface Financial Group, an American alternative finance provider, in which it will work with the British lender to advance cash against small companies’ invoices.

Assetz Capital has enabled about £55 million of lending to about 100 businesses since it was established in 2013. The company combines an online platform for investors with experienced regional relationship managers that it relies on to make lending decisions.

Andrew Holgate, the managing director of Assetz, said: “We are going back to some of the basics of lending. We look at each deal on its merits rather than the hard general criteria banks use. We are going back to local decision-making.”

Peer-to-peer platforms pass on some of the savings they generate by cutting out most of the middleman functions provided by banks to offer investors returns that can be as high as 9 per cent. Other institutions, including hedge funds and pension funds, are looking to back businesses through peer-to-peer lending.

Mr Holgate, a former Royal Bank of Scotland banker, said that in general Assetz worked with slightly larger companies than other players in the peer-to-peer market, with an average loan size of almost £500,000. It also insists on taking security.

“It’s a complicated market and it requires experience to understand whether these businesses are supportable or not,” he said.

Stuart Law, the chief executive, said that the deal with VPC would allow Assetz to meet growing demand from small companies. “We have had more demand than can be satisfied,” he said. 

- January 29, 2015

Back to News Stories