Lendable raises £500M to expand UK personal lending

What's the deal? UK digital lender Lendable has raised £500 million (about $670 million) in lending capital to push further into consumer lending. The company will sell securities backed by a portfolio of unsecured consumer loans to individuals in the UK, according to Bloomberg.

What does the company do? Founded in 2014, Lendable operates an online platform for applying for and managing loans, cutting out paper applications, branch queues, and phone hotlines. It says it is the top issuer of personal loans in the UK and has originated more than £10 billion (about $13.4 billion) in consumer credit assets since launch.

By the numbers: Lendable's profits jumped 120% last year to $155 million, while revenues rose 90% to $608 million. It issued the largest number of consumer credit loans and the second-largest number of new credit cards in the UK.

Why it stands out: The raise ranks in the 94th percentile among UK fintech lending capital rounds tracked all-time, based on a sample of 182 deals. It dwarfs the $275 million equity round Lendable closed in March 2022, which valued the company at $4.5 billion.

What's the endgame? Lendable is planning a US expansion after doubling its profits in 2025. Co-founder Martin Kissinger told the Financial Times in May that big banks dominate consumer credit but "do not do as good of a job as can be done," adding: "So we set out to build a tech company that would do it better."

The signal: The scale of the raise reflects appetite for asset-backed funding among digital lenders looking to grow originations without diluting equity. For Lendable, the capital positions it to defend its UK lead while it eyes a move into the far larger US market.

Read more: pymnts.com

Image credit: Håkan Dahlström