Phil Reynolds, managing director at Newable Lending explains how high-touch mentoring and high-tech loan management is expected to help the peer-to-peer business lender fill a gap in what is believed to be an underserved market.

Fairness is pivotal to Newable Lendings ethos when it comes to lending and we’re not afraid to nail our colours to the mast. The peer-to-peer business lender is a member of Responsible Finance, a trade body working to increase access to fair finance.

“The organisations focus is on serving disadvantaged communities and providing support to people, which for us comes in the form of mentoring which we include in our loans” explains Phil Reynolds, managing director at Newable Lending.

“I believe business borrowers didn’t have the smoothest journey in the past, so our mission is to combine the high-touch mentoring element with high-tech loan management.”

Newable Lending was founded in 1982 originally as Greater London Enterprise, but rebranded in 2016 to reflect its ambitious plans for national growth. The company has four main pillars lending, private investing, advice and property providing specialist products and services for businesses looking to start, scale and internationalise.

Harnessing its long track record and highly experienced team, Newable Lending has recently launched a P2P lending platform to help businesses looking for finance.

Potential borrowers must have been trading for at least two years and have a property that is not their home to put up as security, with interest rates ranging between four per cent and 8.5 per cent per annum.

Investors could receive returns ranging between 2.75 per cent and 6.25 per cent per annum*, with a minimum investment of £10,000.

“The local element is extremely important to us” Reynolds explains. “From a P2P investors perspective, it’s about supporting local businesses, and from the business’s perspective its a way to access a competitively priced loan with very transparent fees, accompanied by mentoring support.”

It is this high-touch’ mentoring support that helps Newable Lending stand apart from other alternative lenders. Borrowers can arrange a Skype or phone call with one of the business mentors and access a vast range of useful content online.

Adding to Newable Lendings high-touch support is its Business Exchange, a physical space on Epsom High Street, Surrey, where businesses looking for funding can speak to mentors face to face.

Thats the high-touch side, so what about the high-tech’ side? Newable Lending has developed an in-house technology solution that can take the stress out of debt finance for its customers.

On the investor side, funds are deposited into e-money accounts and administered in an automated way, and from a borrower perspective, the whole application journey can be completely online, explains Reynolds.

Newable Lending has also endeavoured to make the process easier for introducers, by developing a dedicated portal where commercial finance brokers can manage their customers loan accounts.

Looking ahead, the platform is aiming to lend out more than £500m over the next three to five years, by tapping into what it sees as an underserved segment of the business finance market.

“I think theres been less focus on secured lending in the £500,000 to £3m bracket and a lack of funding options for these businesses,” says Reynolds.

“There will always be elements of the market that will be underserved, but by offering support as well as funding, we’re helping to open it up in a slightly different way.”

Your capital at risk if you invest. Investments are illiquid (meaning the inability to sell assets quickly or without substantial loss in value). Newable Lending for Growth Limited is not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).

*Projected return is an estimate of what investors could earn after fees but before bad debt and taxes.

Newable Lending for Growth Limited is an Appointed Representative of Resolution Compliance Limited. Resolution Compliance Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 574048).