Francesca Carlesi
Molo raises £266m in new funding to expand digital mortgage lending
28 September 20
London Molo, the UK’s first digital mortgage lender announces today that it has raised a further £266m in debt and equity funding, completing its series A equity funding round.
- Total investment of £266m in debt and equity will fund Molo’s rapid growth in the UK’s £1.5tn mortgage market
- NexenaiCapital led the equity round with new investors Macquarie Group and Patron Capital both joining the board of Molo
- Molo launched in late 2018 with the UK’s first mortgage on mobile proposition and has received rapidly accelerating online mortgage applications in 2020 since COVID
The investment was led by global financial services firm Macquarie Group (Macquarie) and Patron Capital, a pan-European institutional investor focused on property-backed investments. The equity round was led by NexenaiCapital, an international Venture Capital firm and supported by existing shareholders Andenes Investments, GPS Ventures and others. The capital raise comes after a first tranche of £10m for the Series A round that closed in January 2020.
The new funding will be used to accelerate the company’s growth through additional online lending and investment in its proprietary technology and new product propositions, taking Molo a step closer to achieving its vision of making home ownership easier for everyone.
Molo brings a unique technology to the UK mortgage market which is one of the last sectors of financial services to embrace the benefits of digital innovation. Molo combines automated decisioning and human expertise with an ability to integrate with its partners’ systems to deliver faster and more transparent mortgage loans, directly to its customers.
Molo has experienced significantly higher volumes of online mortgage applications post COVID which point to the growing popularity of digital lending and the convenience of its digital model. In August and September alone, Molo’s pipeline of buy to let mortgage applications exceeded £500m.
“Molo has reimagined the whole mortgage experience from scratch; we are applying the convenience and speed of today’s technology for today’s customers. Leveraging instant decisioning and real time data validation, customers can get certainty about their mortgage directly on their mobile, in minutes rather than weeks. This additional backing is a sign of trust in Molo, and we are proud to have reputable players like Macquarie, Patron and NexenaiCapital on our team as we seek to revolutionize the mortgage market.”
CEO and Founder
Gerrit Seidel, MD of NexenaiCapital, said: ‘The mortgage markets globally and particularly in the UK, are the largest financial services segments. Dominated still by traditional banking incumbents and brokerage set-ups, the market is ready for accelerated disruption, unlocking significant cost efficiencies and enabling consumer friendly online mortgage solutions. Molo is best equipped to spearhead these developments in the UK.’
Carolyn Porretta, a Managing Director at Macquarie Group and Non-Executive Board Director of Molo added: “The UK mortgage market is currently undergoing an enormous transformation to digitalise and make the process of getting a mortgage decision faster and easier than ever before. Molo is at the forefront of this technology and we are looking forward to working with them to realise the opportunity.”