Irish peer-to-peer lender Flender has reportedly attracted close to more than €2 million through its latest funding round. This news comes less than a year after the lending platform secured £501,700 through its equity crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs.
As previously reported, Flender is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority under Registration Number 657861. The online lender is currently looking to enable businesses and consumers the ability to borrow money through their existing networks of friends, family, and customers. The platform noted:
“Flender intends to offer established small businesses an innovative new way to access finance by leveraging their loyal customer base. In the consumer space, Flender will facilitate and formalise an existing and large market of social lending across the UK and Ireland. We aim to do this via a unique combination of bringing trust through social networks, giving all users the ability to set their own interest rates, and all via a seamless mobile user experience.”
Chief Executive of Flender, Kristjan Koik revealed to the Independent more details about the lender’s future plans:
“In the UK, platforms like Seedrs and Crowdcube do run these kinds of campaigns [raising equity via crowdfunding]. Nobody in Ireland is doing it so if there is demand then we would definitely look at it although our core business at the moment is lending rather than equity-raise campaigns. We’ve been very focused in terms of what we want to do and we will continue to be focused on this. Lending and bringing cheaper finance to SMEs, while letting the public earn a good return.”
Flender is planning to expand into Spanish and East European markets in the future.
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