UK Digital Mortgage Lender Perenna Closes $30M Series A

U.K.-based digital bank Perenna has closed a $30 million Series A funding round, as reported in AltFi Monday (Sept. 26).

Perenna, which has yet to launch officially but has a waiting list for potential customers, is looking to position itself as a digital-first mortgage lender in a market that is dominated by a handful of banks and is today reeling from the effects of a sharp devaluation in the pound.

Perenna was only recently awarded the necessary banking license “with restrictions” by the Bank of England for it to be able to offer mortgages. As the lender states on its website, “our ambition [is] to introduce 95% LTV (‘Loan to Value’) mortgages with a fixed for life interest rate along with flexibility.”

The latest funding comes from IAG Silverstripe, an arm of venture capital firm IAG Capital Partners.

“We are excited to have a strategic investor like Silverstripe working with us,” Perenna founder and CEO Arjan Verbeek said in the report. “It’s their first investment in a pre-launch business. We see it as an endorsement of our mission to offer consumer-friendly mortgages and enable more people to become homeowners.”

He added, “The mortgage market is in dire need of innovation. It’s an oligopoly controlled by a few banks thriving in the status quo, much to the detriment of consumers.”

Related: Pound, Euro Instability Signals Stress Ahead for Europe’s FinTech Ecosystem

The IAG Silverstripe investment follows seed round Perenna raised a year and a half ago of 7 million pounds from a host of angel investors, including Kevin Flaherty, former Deutsche Bank head of structured product syndicate and managing director; Casper Arboll, founder of Capdesk; and Tony Mallin, managing partner at Star Capital.

The lender says it will launch its first mortgage product as soon as its banking infrastructure is in place and the Bank of England removes the restrictions on its license.

For all PYMNTS EMEA coverage, subscribe to the daily EMEA Newsletter.