B&C caught up with Matthew Tooth, Head of Distribution at LendInvest, to find out more about the platform’s development finance proposition.

1.            What does your role consist of and what roles/experiences have to you had in the past? 

I’m the Head of Distribution with responsibility for sales and improving our offer to borrowers, intermediaries and investors. In practice, this means managing the sales team and ensuring they have a great proposition to sell. Before Lendinvest I had 22 years’ experience in financial services with KPMG, Credit Suisse and then IG Group. I started out as a chartered accountant auditing banks and ended up running sales and business development teams at fintech companies - which has proved a lot more interesting. 

2.            Did you always want to work in finance? 

Not always. When I was 11 I wanted to be a taxi driver: I had an exceptional memory back then, so I thought I would be able to pass ‘The Knowledge’. As I got a bit older I did make a decision to go into finance. Growing up in London in the 80s, the City seemed like such a big opportunity.

3.            What one thing would you change about the bridging industry?

I would bring it right up to date with the latest technology, online and on mobile, with instant access to information about cases in progress. I’d use better data to improve convenience, speed of delivery and personalisation of our service for our brokers and borrowers. Ideally, LendInvest can lead the way with up-to-date technology and the rest of the market can stay where it is! To achieve this we have to work to educate the intermediary market on the benefit of doing things differently - from their perspective, not ours - but I think we have a lot of early adopters. 

4.            How are you looking to take more market share in such a competitive market?

Apart from better technology we are expanding our salesforce. We are on the lookout for the best business development managers in the industry to augment the excellent team we have already, and increasing our share of the intermediary market by improving our value proposition, presence and communication.

5.           What exciting projects do LendInvest have coming up in the near future?

On the product front we will be launching a development finance proposition. On the technology front we are always rolling out the best online tools that will help intermediaries to manage their cases with us.

6.            If you could have one superpower, what would it be and why?

To be able to convince everyone, in one go, that embracing technology is for the good of the whole mortgage market!

7.            What is the most interesting bridging deal you have done?

Lendinvest has done some interesting deals recently. One in particular was with a seasoned and successful property investor who I met recently after he had been badly let down by one of our competitors. An offer letter had been issued but withdrawn at the eleventh hour without any reasonable explanation. The introducing broker had recently dealt with us on a case where time was of the essence. Accordingly, the broker felt comfortable in our ability to perform and meet the timescales demanded by the vendor. We completed on the deal and are now dealing with the broker on a number of other cases. In the short time that I’ve been at LendInvest (since August), the speed at which we turn collapsed deals around has become a recurring theme in my conversations with brokers. My challenge now is to drive the original enquiry to us, so that the broker and their clients don’t experience any problems in the first place.
 
8. What are the biggest challenges for the bridging market this year?

Competition. Differentiating your business is an increasingly crowded marketplace will be key.

9.           Who is your idol? 

My father. He is his own man and does not take life too seriously.

10.          If you could take three things to a desert island, what would they be? 

My family, access to the cloud and a beachfront villa.