Perenna has raised $10m as part of its plans to obtain a banking licence.
Perenna has raised $10m as part of its plans to obtain a banking licence.
Perenna, which is applying for a banking licence from the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), raised the money from a group of investors including Kevin Flaherty, former head of structured product syndicate and managing director at Deutsche Bank, Casper Arboll founder of Capdesk, and Tony Mallin MBE, managing director of Star Capital.
Perenna is building a mortgage lender, which intends to use long-term covered bonds to finance its products.
Colin Bell, chief operating officer and co-founder of Perenna, said: “Our latest round of funding brings us another step closer to offering fixed for life mortgages to the UK market.
“By increasing the numbers of people able to secure mortgage finance, we will help boost business volumes for intermediary partners who will play an essential role in helping to promote and educate the benefits of fixed for life mortgages to those who have found the current market model time consuming and costly.”
Arjan Verbeek, chief executive and co-founder of Perenna added: “For too long real and meaningful innovation in the UK mortgage market has been limited. This hasn’t just left Britain with a sector that has poor product offerings for customers.
“In some cases, borrowers have been excluded from the housing market altogether, from first-time buyers struggling to meet affordability criteria, to older homeowners who want to borrow but are restricted simply because of their age.
“This latest investment is a powerful vote of confidence from a high quality investor consortium in Perenna’s proposition.
“It puts us on target to launch our innovative range of long-term fixed-rate products, which we really believe could transform the UK mortgage market for consumers, allowing them to borrow what they can actually afford and creating a nation of happy homeowners.”
