London-based Santander InnoVentures, Santander Group’s venture capital fund focused on financial technology investments, is leading a €35 million (appr. $38.7 million) investment round in Berlin-based CrossLend, a cross-border marketplace lending platform for making pan-European investments.
The Series B funding round in CrossLend includes investments from existing investors VC firm Lakestar, ABN AMRO Ventures, and Earlybird, a firm that invests in European tech companies.
Other existing investors in CrossLend include, CME Ventures, solarisBank, and finleap.
Established in 2014, CrossLend offers an online debt marketplace for consumers, small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), invoices, mortgages and other types of debt originated by banks and various other alternative originators. CrossLend helps institutional investors build their portfolios by securitizing the assets as fixed income instruments.
Manuel Silva Martínez, partner and head of Investments at Santander InnoVentures, stated:
“By developing technology that digitizes processes done manually today and building a regulatory infrastructure that allows for a truly pan-European platform, CrossLend is addressing several key opportunities: the ability for banks to mobilize balance sheet assets for regulatory capital optimization, and connecting alternative originators and banks alike with new sources of capital in-market and crossborder, all of this seamlessly and profitably.”
Oliver Schimek, CEO and founder of CrossLend, noted:
“We are already in conversations with further banks regarding joining the consortium of investors in the coming months, and we are very proud that Santander InnoVentures and ABN AMRO Ventures have already recognized CrossLend as the key driver of an efficient financing backbone for Europe’s economy.”