The Property Voice

Series 4 PropTech: FinTech and Learning & Development – with Ian Thomas from LendInvest

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I am joined on today’s show by Ian Thomas, Co-Founder of LendInvest, the alternative lending platform for property developers and investors. Starting a lending company in 2008 might have sounded like a risky thing to do, but as we shall hear, there was an opportunity to fund some decent deals in the void of lending at that time, so a pretty shrewd move too. Ian and LendInvest do in fact straddle FinTech and to some extent Learning & Development with the PropTech umbrella, so our conversation is wide-ranging.

Resources mentioned

Links to the LendInvest website and their dedicated Development Academy page

Link to the Podcast feedback survey

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Transcription of the show

Hello, and welcome to another episode of The Property Voice podcast. My name is Richard Brown and it’s a pleasure to have you join me on the show again today.

I am joined on today’s show by Ian Thomas, Co-Founder of LendInvest, the alternative lending platform for property developers and investors. Starting a lending company in 2008 might have sounded like a risky thing to do, but as we shall hear, there was an opportunity to fund some decent deals in the void of lending at that time, so a pretty shrewd move too. Ian and LendInvest do in fact straddle FinTech and to some extent Learning & Development with the PropTech umbrella, so our conversation is wide-ranging.

Have a listen in as we discuss, lending platforms and support small developers in other ways as well.

Property Chatter

Interview with Ian Thomas from LendInvest

Another interesting and insightful conversation with one of the founders of a PropTech business I am sure you would agree.

Here is a quick summary of the key takeaways from our conversation, which straddled both FinTech and Learning & Development.

  1. The Global Financial Crisis provided some new lending opportunities – prior to the financial crash, the vast majority of lending for property investors came from the banks and their subsidiaries, which almost dried up overnight during 2008. LendInvest were able to step in, gradually adding loans from High Net Worth Investors, dedicated funds, smaller banking lines and a retail bond to access funding from a wider capital base. This can be a defence in times of tight bank credit, that can help us as investors too.
  2. Increasing usage of online platforms reduce time and increase certainty – reduce time and increased certainty are definitely two of the biggest concerns of any property investor and developer, so any platform that can reduce the friction to achieve this is welcome. Currently an intermediary-only platform though, so check with your broker to see if they have a relationship.
  3. Skilled humans supported by systems and processes – yet again, we hear how the skillsets of humans are complimented by the technology, which is a running theme throughout this series. As Ian expressed, ideally this should also lead to reduce time and reduced fees and costs too!
  4. Learning & development as a support aid for developers – LendInvest have taken their role as seeking to provide sustainable lending to the next level by using technology. For example, there are some online tools and resources available to the broker community and besides the training room Academy day, they also have an online resource library to support aspiring property developers to help plug their gaps via their not-for-profit learning and development model aimed at helping to get Britain’s SMEs building again.
  5. Technology is a learning aid; but is of no real use unless it is applied in practical way. Again, there is this theme of complementarity. Old world and new world, classroom and onsite, alone and in a network…all supported by technology but not fully replacing the need to actually do something ourselves.
  6. A little bit of everything is the best way forward – self-directed learning, structured learning and shadowing all play their part in our learning and development, although are best applied in a logical and progressive way.
  7. There is greater support to businesses now through the incubators, venture capitalists and crowdfunders; all themselves examples of FinTech development to some extent. Learning is also about on-the-job experience, but a support system and networking certainly can help to make the journey a little less painful.

    8. It was quite fitting to finish off looking towards some of the investment community, with a shout out to Pi Labs mentioned, as we have a chat with Dominic Wilson, one of Pi Labs’ founders in a week or two. Do make sure you listen into that for an alternative investor perspective into PropTech companies.

    Next time, we shall take a closer look at Learning and Development and perhaps pull together some of the threads of FinTech based on some of my own research as we start to think about coming to the end of the series in the next few weeks or so.

    In the meantime, the show notes can be found over at www.thepropertyvoice.net or if you want to talk about anything from today’s show, receive an intro into one of my guests or just talk property investing, email me at [email protected], I would be happy to hear from you!

    Once again, all I want to say is thank you very much for listening once again this week and until next time on The Property Voice Podcast…it’s ciao-ciao.

    The post Series 4 PropTech: FinTech and Learning & Development – with Ian Thomas from LendInvest appeared first on The Property Voice.

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    The Property VoiceBy Richard W J Brown from www.thepropertyvoice.net