The peer-to-peer lender has recently launched in Ireland and has raised finance for SMEs with an average loan value of £25,000 with an interest rate of 10%.
Flender recently gained full authorisation from the FCA and has launched a tax-free Innovative Finance Isa as it looks to revolutionise the way people lend and borrow by fostering a culture of loyalty and trust.
Flender allows users to borrow and lend money to friends, connections or businesses, while borrowers can create and share a personalised link to their campaigns on social networks or invite chosen individuals directly by email.
The Dublin-based company is itself a product of crowdfunding and raised £501,000 of launch funds through a public offering on Seedrs.
“It was important to us that we show how much we believe in this lending model,” said Oli Cavanagh, sales director and founder (pictured above, left).
“We conducted public equity crowdfunding because we wanted to demonstrate that the idea of funding by the ‘crowd’ really works.”
Flender has also attracted funding from the investment group Halo Business Angel Network.
“The group identified Flender’s ability to engage lenders from within borrowers’ own social circles as a real gap in the market,” said Liam Bradley, Halo Acorn Angel investor.
“Within an addressable market of over £5.4bn between the UK and Ireland, we believe that the company has an opportunity for massive growth.”
One SME funded by Flender is a café owned by Niall Murphy, who founded his The Galway Roast company 10 years ago.
The café chain had expanded to four locations and when the ideal setting for a fifth was identified, Niall turned to Flender to raise funds.
“We were initially attracted to the unique approach to customer engagement that Flender offered,” said Niall.
“It wasn’t just about the funds, with Flender it was a way of getting our loyal customers to help us expand and share in our success.
“It only took us 30 minutes to set up our campaign on Flender, versus around 25 hours of management time when applying for a traditional bank loan.”
Many of the lenders using Flender come from outside of Ireland, noting Ireland’s low default rates for peer-to-peer loans as a reason for opting with the platform.
‘’I turned to peer-to-peer lending to get better rates on my savings,” said Joachim Ritter, an investor based in Switzerland.
“Flender is a great way to diversify investments and increase regular income at very attractive interest rates.”
Also pictured: Jeremy Davies-Betancourt, finance director, and Kristjan Koik, managing director
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