LANDBAY narrowed its losses last year thanks to increased revenues and gross profit.
The peer-to-peer property lender’s annual accounts for last year show its revenue increased from £994,495 to £4.4m and gross profit was up to £2.5m compared with £250,000 in 2017.
The buy-to-let specialist made an overall loss of £1.45m, down from £1.85m in 2017.
The results, filed with Companies House, show Landbay’s lending increased fourfold to £149m last year, taking its total loanbook to £231m.
Its user base grew from 6,146 in 2017 to 7,644 in 2018.
John Goodall, chief executive of Landbay, said most of its costs came from headcount and “massive investment” in technology.
“Our headcount will almost double in 2019 in a combination of sales, credit and software engineering,” he said.
“We are looking to automate more of what we do so we can become a meaningful buy-to-let lender as opposed to a niche one.”
Goodall said investment in technology and automation would help underwriters focus on adding value and better and more speedy decisions and would also benefit brokers and borrowers.
He said there were no plans for an initial public offering this year or next but added a listing was a still a preferred route.
