B2R Holdings, the parent company of B2R Finance, which lends to landlords, has rebranded as Lending.com.
The new name reflects the group's aim to offer more types of financial products beyond rental property finance. These products could be aimed at consumers, entrepreneurs, or established businesses.
"We've created a unique, technology-enhanced lending platform to allow loans at greater volumes while effectively managing credit risk and operating efficiency," Nick Gould, founder and chairman of Lending.com, said in a press release. "We continue to leverage and build upon this low-friction platform to revolutionize lending itself as we deploy new products."
The Lending.com platform has been in development for the past year and initially focused on residential rental finance through B2R Finance, which lends to investors with portfolios of single-family homes, and Dwell Finance, which finances the purchase of individual single-family rentals.
The new company, which is controlled by the Blackstone Group, remains the parent entity of B2R Finance and Dwell. The existing management team remains intact.
"While we've all grown accustomed to hearing about the economic recovery and the cost of capital being at an all-time low, the reality is that lending remains constrained," founder and CEO Jason Hogg said in the same press release. "Consumers' access to credit is still fragmented and banks are unable to adapt to this rapidly evolving landscape."
"We're confident this technology can be used to disintermediate how lending is done across multiple industry verticals, including consumer installment, durable goods and small business lending," Hogg said.
Lending.com could offer these additional products through joint ventures or through third parties that contact to use the platform. These partners will have the option of using all or parts of the lending platform, which offers origination, servicing and processing, balance sheet management, and access to the capital markets.
Lending.com has more than $1 billion in lending capacity for approved products through several warehouse partners including Citibank, Goldman Sachs, Guggenheim Partners and Wells Fargo. However, B2R Finance is currently using most of this capacity. It originated more than $1 billion of loans in its first year, though a $230 million securitization in April freed up some warehousing capacity.
Hogg, reached by telephone, declined to comment on the timing of any future transactions, but said, "Securitization is a key part of our strategy. It's not inaccurate to say we are committed to doing it on a regular basis."
B2R Mortgage Trust 2015-1, the deal completed in April, was the first securitization of single-family loans to multiple borrowers. Previously, deals in this asset class had been backed by a single loan backed in turn by thousands of single-family rentals. The collateral for B2RMT 2015-1 consisted entirely of financing for investors with portfolios of rental properties.
Hogg did not comment on the mix of collateral for future deals, but B2R Finance and Dwell currently offer five products: Foundation loans, which range from $60,000 to $750,000, can be used to purchase or refinance individual properties; Portfolio Pro loans, which start at $300,000, can be used to acquire three or more properties; Flash Pro, with a pre-approved credit limit from $1.5 million to over $25 million, finances the renovation and resale of investment properties; Annex Pro, which also has a credit limit from $1.5 million to over $25 million, finances the acquisition and rehab of properties to be rented by the borrower; and Portfolio Enterprise, another refinance loan, which starts at $5 million.
