Property finance and fintech leader Christian Faes, co-founder of LendInvest, has crossed the pond and established F2 Finance, a US-based bridging finance company.
This marks the inaugural venture launched by Faes’s fintech investment firm, Faes & Co. With the help of top-tier tech partners, F2 Finance aims to create a scalable platform targeting the US “fix & flip” short-term property market, a sector estimated to be valued at around $68bn annually.
Despite being a newcomer, F2 Finance has been active since April, operating with a selected group of introduced.
Although the company is currently focusing on the California, Texas, and Florida markets, it has plans to expand its reach throughout the US.
Faes, an Australian-born entrepreneur, co-founded LendInvest amid the 2008 financial crisis, growing it into one of the UK’s largest non-bank mortgage lenders.
LendInvest, which went public on the London Stock Exchange in 2021, manages about £3.7bn in funds and is backed by numerous institutions, including J.P. Morgan, Citibank, and Wells Fargo. Faes continues to hold a substantial share in the company and serves as its chairman.
Faes said: “We’re looking forward to the challenge of building and scaling a short-term mortgage lender here in the U.S. It’s a huge market that’s going through a period of significant disruption at the moment – very much like when we set up LendInvest in the UK back in 2008.
“We believe that this presents a particular opportunity at this time to enter the US market for bridging finance.”
In addition to building and investing in tech-enabled direct lending businesses, Faes & Co operates as a private credit fund manager.
The investment firm’s flagship fund invests in asset-backed loans originated by its group companies.
The company’s team has experience in establishing direct lending businesses in the UK, Ireland, Australia, and the US, with a combined $4.7bn in funds under management as of May 31, 2023.
