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Small-business lending platform Lend has appointed its first head of third party, following the launch of its lending platform for finance brokers.
Lend Capital (Lend), a new fintech platform that automates the process of matching the funding needs of brokers’ SME clients with lenders, has appointed Donelle Brooks to the role of head of third party.
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Ms Brooks, who has both broking and technology industry experience, was most recently the national business development manager (BDM) for small-business lender Business Fuel.
She started in her new position at Lend on Monday (6 January), reporting directly to Lend CEO Bill Baker.
In her new role, Ms Brooks will continue to work with SME brokers and traditional finance brokers who want to offer SME lending to their clients, and will build the platform’s presence in the third-party space.
According to Mr Baker, the newly created position role comes as Lend continues to “make inroads” into the third-party channel following the release of its technology platform late last year.
The CEO said that Ms Brooks was the “perfect fit” to be Lend’s first head of third party because of her “background working with technology platforms and her extensive broker network”.
Ms Brooks told The Adviser that she was excited to start in her new role, adding: “I thrive on challenge and making a difference.
“I have worked with the [Lend] platform in previous roles and, over time, have seen the platform develop and want to sing its capabilities from the rooftops.
“The Lend platform is the perfect way for brokers to diversify easily with a single application form; it’s free, saves massive amounts of time, and the lender panel all specialise in business lending,” she said.
“The challenge is to get this message out to the broader broker community and now! There are many small broker families who are trying to diversify into business lending but don’t know who or where is the best place for their client.”
She concluded: “I can’t wait to get amongst the broker ecosystem and share the love!”
While Lend was founded in 2016 by a team of finance specialists, data scientists, machine learning engineers and technologists, the platform first launched to the broker market in late 2019.
According to the fintech, the aim of the platform is to “completely re‐architect the way brokers, borrowers and lenders interact” and “automate the process of matching a lender to an SME, using a sophisticated combination of AI and analytics… without impacting the applicant’s credit score”.
It also offers brokers access to its LendScore tool, which provides brokers a score on the likelihood of their client’s loan getting an approval from a lender.
Mr Baker commented: “It’s been a long road to get here. And we’ve relied on the ongoing insights and feedback from brokers to help us develop and evolve the Lend Platform. Let me express my sincere gratitude to those brokers that have helped us on this journey.
“Moving forward, our long-term vision is to be the go-to platform for every finance broker.”
[Related: Non-bank lender launches SME loans platform]
