Co-founded by Liam Brooke (pictured above) and Tim Gordon in 2013, the bridging and property development finance platform, owned and operated by Lendy Ltd, has since built up an impressive 14,500-strong investor base and expects this to increase by 40 investors per day this year.

After achieving £50m of property development lending in 2016, the P2P platform is now eyeing a £150m target by the end of the year.

Liam told Development Finance Today that 2016 was a huge year of growth for the business, with its loan book doubling to over £265m.

“This year we have set a development loan target of £150m, given our positive outlook on the property market – owing to the low interest rates environment – the property market remaining resilient despite other economic uncertainties and us seeing increasing numbers of developers realising the P2P options available to them.”

Saving Stream's head office in Southsea

To achieve its goal, Saving Stream plans to expand its business development team to help broaden its relationships with brokers and borrowers.

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Alan Darling, head of lending at Saving Stream, has over 30 years of experience in banking and joined the company last year to head up the development finance team.

Alan teamed up with Mark Whitburn, head of credit, and Robert Easterbrook, head of compliance.

Alan Darling, head of lending at Saving Stream

Five years on from launch, the profitability of the platform can be attributed to its cautious approach to scaling up its team at times when the business could sustain its expansion.

“…Our employee levels have grown organically — as and when the business warranted [it],” Liam added.

“Given our speed of growth, we are [now] ready to build our development team to help meet the demand from investors for a greater mix of new loans.”

Liam Brooke at the Saving Stream headquarters

As part of its 2017 strategy, the company also says that it is looking to simplify its brand and online presence to make accessing the crowdfunding platform easier for clients. The changes are expected over the next few weeks.