Zoopla (LSE:ZPLA) has invested an undisclosed sum in peer to peer mortgage lender Landbay. The announcement was revealed in a corporate filing by Zoopla as well as a statement on the Landbay site. Zoopla also announced partnership/investments in PropertyDetective, FixFlo and Trussle, each representing an important vertical in Zoopla’s strategy to grow its PropTech portfolio.
Landbay stated that details on the partnership will be shared in coming months as new features will be launched at some point this summer.
Alex Chesterman, Zoopla founder and CEO, said he was “delighted” to announce their partnershp with Landbay, a company he labled as one of the most innovative businesses in the PropTech sector;
“Our mission is to be the most useful resource in the UK property market and Landbay has developed an exciting peer-to-peer lending proposition for residential property that allows consumers to invest from as little as £100. We are looking forward to working with them to bring residential property investing to the masses.“
Landbay, founded by John Goodall and Gray Stern, allows individuals to invest in assets secured by mortgages. The platform has grown rapidly by delivering solid annual rates of returns driven by the UKs hot housing market. Landbay completes more than £5 million in mortgages each month and is said to be positioned as “UK’s fastest growing alternative finance business”.
Zoopla is a company that operates property sites uSwitch and Prime Location. Zoopla announced full year results (ending September 20, 2015) showing a revenue increase of 34% as the top line number jumped to £107.6 million. Profit for the year increased 20% to £25.4 million. The partnership with Landbay is designed to help scale their retail customer base as the P2P lender becomes a more established mortgage lender.
Landbay commented on their business and newly formed arrangement with Zoopla;
“Since our inception Landbay has sought to remove the old guard bureaucracy in mortgage lending, passing on a better return and experience for investors and borrowers alike. As the original pioneers in proptech, Zoopla is the perfect partner to collaborate with us as we continue to help consumers to prosper from the property market.”
