Lendi Capital Raise AFR Article
"Lendi is 40 per cent owned by founders and employees and its big name minority shareholders include Bailador, Macquarie Group and several sophisticated investors." Virginia Star
via www.afr.com/street-talk
by Sarah Thompson Anthony Macdonald Joyce Moullakis
Online mortgage broker Lendi, which is backed by investors including Macquarie Group, has completed its latest round of capital raising.
Street Talk understands Lendi last month ruled off a $25 million capital raise which was oversubscribed and supported by some existing shareholders, sophisticated investors and a number of blue-chip Australian institutions. The company is seeking to take a bigger slice of the local mortgage market after accounting for about 1 per cent last year.
Lendi is 40 per cent owned by founders and employees and its big name minority shareholders include Bailador, Macquarie Group and several sophisticated investors.
Early investors included CrownBet boss Matthew Tripp. Although it is unclear if he remains on the register.
This is the latest fund raising effort by Lendi. In earlier rounds, the company raised $3.1 million from high net worth investors to scale the business nationally and in 2014 secured a further $6 million.
The company developed an online application process which it claims provides a "faster and simpler" way of getting a home loan. It now has 200 team members across four offices.
Lendi - founded by David Hyman, Sebastian Watkins, Martin Lam and Mark Kalajzich - has also been busy forging new partnerships. Last year, property business Domain pushed into the home loan market by establishing a mortgage broking service.
The business, Domain Loan Finder, was set up as a joint venture with Lendi. Domain, which is majority owned by Fairfax Media publisher of The Australian Financial Review, retains 60 per cent of the broking joint venture but does not own a direct stake in Lendi.