BondMason

BondMason Group Limited
Private
Industry Peer-to-peer lending
Founded 2013 (2013)
Founder Stephen Findlay
Headquarters Harpenden, United Kingdom
Products Financial Services
Number of employees
 16
Website www.bondmason.com

BondMason is a direct lending and peer-to-peer lending platform based in Harpenden, UK. BondMason's service is for lenders and investors only making it different to most peer-to-peer lending platforms who also originate and manage borrowers. Given this innovative investor-only approach, BondMason was one of the first companies accepted onto the FCA's Innovation Hub programme [1] as the FCA recognised that BondMason's investor-only model was 'genuinely innovative' and offered 'a good prospect of identifiable benefit to consumers'.[2]

History

BondMason was founded in 2013 [3] by Stephen Findlay who is an accountant with a background in private equity and who previously worked at Fidelity.[4] The Chief Investment Officer is Graham Martin, a banker who previously worked at Abbey National (now Santander), Blackstone[5] and Ares Management LLC. James Russell is a co-founder and CTO. The Non-Executive Chairman, Robert Mason, is a banker and Head of Private Equity at Sandaire Investment Office.[6]

The company officially launched in October 2015[7] and completed an equity funding round in 2016 led by Par Equity of Edinburgh, UK.[8]

Business Model and Activities

BondMason enables clients to access returns from peer-to-peer lending and direct lending. Services that it offers to investors include an "auto bid" service where lenders can deploy capital based on their investment preferences automatically across more than 100 opportunities and "auto reinvest" service where lenders' capital is automatically reinvested.

The company also produces proprietary research into peer-to-peer lending market trends,[9][10] including identifying the market size and growth in peer-to-peer lending in the UK from £2.3bn in 2015[11] to £3.2bn in 2016.[12]

Social Impact

BondMason is a socially conscious organisation and commits to lend up to 10% of its revenue to micro lending initiatives to empower individuals and companies in developing regions globally.[13] BondMason is also a supporter of flexible working practices and over half of its team comprises parents that are returning to the workforce on a flexible basis, many of whom after taking career breaks to raise their children.[14]

References

  1. ↑ "How debt takes p2p lending to the next level". Lending Times. 15 February 2017.
  2. ↑ "FCA Eligibility for Innovation Hub". Financial Conduct Authority. Financial Conduct Authority.
  3. ↑ "WebCheck". Companies House. Companies House.
  4. ↑ "Complinet Group Announces $37 Million Private Equity Investment from Fidelity Equity Partners". Business Wire. 18 March 2008.
  5. ↑ "Blackstone". Blackstone.
  6. ↑ "PE Conference".
  7. ↑ "P2P Asset Manager BondMason Launches". AltFi. 4 January 2016.
  8. ↑ "Par Equity Portfolio". Par Equity.
  9. ↑ "BondMason Reports P2P Lending Doubled to £2.3bn in 2015; Offers Up 3 Predictions for 2016". Crowdfund Insider. 17 December 2015.
  10. ↑ "Market Report - Direct Lending in the UK". BondMason.
  11. ↑ "Lending Club Scandal Provokes Major UK 'Peer-To-Peer' Investigation". Forbes. 22 July 2016.
  12. ↑ "Peer to peer benefits from flight to quality". Wealth Adviser. 8 February 2017.
  13. ↑ "BondMason Foundation and micro-lending: loans that change lives". BondMason.
  14. ↑ "BondMason About Us". BondMason.

External sources

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