Held in the striking surroundings of the Royal Exchange Café in the City of London last Thursday, guests were welcomed with champagne and canapés before the new lender on the block really set out to impress.

Jonathan Samuels, CEO of Drawbridge Finance, took to the stage to thank those attending and reveal that the word “launch” was not really the right one for the lender.

Jonathan revealed that since quietly entering the ring last year, Drawbridge Finance has provided over £100 million worth of loans, and has picked now as the time to shout out about it.

In fact, the City-based lender also chose this platform to announce that just the day before a loan of £17 million was completed – with the lucky introducer, Mike Lawton, stepping up to receive a bottle of champagne.

Mr Lawton, the mortgage director from John Charcol, said such a sizeable loan is not easy to place. Describing the case, he said: “My clients are three brothers who run a family business, which is over 150 years old.

“They wanted to raise the money in order to expand their property portfolio and as I knew Drawbridge underwriter Elliot Hyames I arranged a meeting with them. The loan was agreed in 20 minutes, and the whole process from start to finish took just over a month – notwithstanding it was something of a complex legal process as the brothers own so many properties.”

Mr Lawton added: “I’ve been in the mortgage business for 20 years and can say that the service at Drawbridge is second to none.”

Jonathan Samuels said: “It was an absolute pleasure working on this loan with Mike’s team; they were incredibly professional and really assisted with the speed of the loan.”

Mark Posniak, head of marketing and operations at Drawbridge, was quick to point out that the £17 million deal is only their second-biggest loan of 2010. The largest has been a staggering £24 million transaction, completed earlier this year.

Commenting on the firm’s launch, he said: “The launch party was a great success. We couldn’t be happier with how the first 12 months have gone and by all accounts our key partners feel the same way. The feedback we have received indicates that our appetite for growth coupled with our exceptional service is hitting the right note. We plan to continue to innovate and intend to launch some new products in the coming months.”