Christian Faes, Executive Chair and Co-founder

Rod Lockhart, CEO, LendInvest

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LendInvest, a tech-driven asset manager focused on property finance, held its IPO in 2021. Executive chair and co-founder Christian Faes and CEO Rod Lockhart discuss why listing as a public company had been their holy grail and how it has helped to accelerate growth. 

LendInvest was founded in 2008. What have been the major milestones in its growth journey? 

A lot of our key milestones do relate to raising capital. Our first raise of VC investment from Atomico was a great moment and a validation for the business as well as our first securitisation, first retail bond and then our IPO.

It’s not the raising of the capital itself; it is about having these big projects happening within the business where everyone is rooting for the result. When it comes together, you see the excitement and fulfilment which everyone gets out of that. They provide a moment where everyone comes together and can celebrate and reflect on what has been achieved.

Another milestone, personally for the business, was Rod stepping into the CEO role in 2020. We had been discussing it for some time as he had been a key part of the business for seven years and so the transition was relatively seamless.

This year, we will be launching our own home ownership mortgage product which will be another big milestone for the business.

Has the business - and the property finance market - evolved in the way that you initially envisaged?

The business has grown in the way that we had hoped but the property market has been slow to evolve. Anyone who has bought a house knows how much friction and pain it can entail. If you think of how financial transactions in other parts of our lives have got easier, I would have thought that this process would by now have become better and easier. There's a lot more evolution to happen in the property finance market.

Why did you decide to IPO in 2021?

Christian

We had always aspired to be a listed company – it was our holy grail to take the company public. In some respects, our timing was opportunistic. We were profitable and had the capital to achieve our growth ambitions. We had spent money and time looking at an IPO in 2019 so we were prepared and the markets seemed to be open.

Rod

The business had performed exceptionally well through the Covid pandemic – we had a tech roadmap that we wanted to deliver and had continued to lend throughout. We felt that had been a real test of the business which it had passed with flying colours – we were ready to go public.

What have been the principal benefits resulting from the IPO? Has it added velocity to your growth? Has it helped to raise profile of the company? Has it an impact on your employees and customers? Has it broadened your investor base?

Rod

The IPO is a symbol of our business maturing and operating in an open and transparent way. There were many strong commercial decisions for listing. Being a listed company definitely helps with attracting good employees: we have grown the size of our software team by 30 per cent since listing, and we have been able to recruit experienced top talent.

Christian

It has raised our profile, driven down our cost of capital and, critically, enables us to raise capital to accelerate our growth roadmap over the next five to ten years.  

Being a listed company, it's very simple and easy for employees to understand how many shares they have and what they are worth. Prior to the IPO, I had been concerned that this would prove to be a distraction and that people would be obsessed by the share price but that hasn’t been the case. It’s been one of the biggest benefits of the whole process.

What advice would you give to leadership teams about holding an IPO?

Christian

You don’t have to be a unicorn to hold an IPO. And you can do it quickly - we did ours in three and a half months from start to finish. It’s exhausting but it can be done.

Rod

The uncertainty is the hard part. You don't know you are going to get it done until it's done – having that uncertainty throughout the process is stressful and challenging. It can be a roller coaster for the team. We controlled that by condensing the timescale.

What advice would you give to aspiring fintech founders?

Founders have to focus on more than just creating large valuations and raising money. They need to focus on something that of real customer benefit and which ultimately can drive profits. Generating clicks, users and revenues will be the focus in the early days but founders need to have a pathway that shows it can be a real, self-sustaining business. That is what is critical for success in a public company.

London is a natural home for fintech and I am involved with the Fintech Founders Group to help give fintech founders a voice and to help keep London as a world leading centre for fintech.