Meet Uma Rajah, CEO and Co-Founder at Property Investment Platform: CapitalRise

Launched in 2016, CapitalRise gives investors the ability to invest in some of the most exclusive prime property developments across London and the Home Counties – which were previously reserved for only a select few individuals and institutions due to the large transaction sizes.

CapitalRise was co-founded by two directors of Finchatton, one of London’s premier real estate development companies with more than £2 billion assets completed to date, and a fintech leader who was the driving force behind launching and developing nine digital lending platforms across consumer, business, and property finance.

Collectively, they wanted to address the funding gap for prime property finance created by the retreat of traditional lenders following regulatory changes since the global financial crisis, and to open investment in prime property which was previously only possible for ultra-high-net worth individuals and institutional investors.
 
 

 

What do you think makes this company unique?

 
When we launched the business, we were the only specialist prime real estate lender in the UK market and that is still the case today. We were also unique in our offering to investors. Enabling them to invest in real estate debt opportunities in locations such as Mayfair, Belgravia and Chelsea is something you can’t find anywhere else to our knowledge.

The depth of our experience and knowledge is evidenced by the strong performance of our loan book, which shows no losses or defaults to date. We have a rigorous due diligence process, careful loan structuring and stress testing. In addition, our founders invest their own personal money into every single investment demonstrating their confidence in the quality of their underwriting process.

CapitalRise developed its own proprietary technology to offer fast, flexible finance to property developers. This rich technology background combined with the deep property expertise the team possesses has been key to the success and rapid growth of the business.
 

How has the company evolved over the last couple of years?

 
CapitalRise is well known for operating in Prime Central London, but we also operate across Greater London and the Home Counties. We are continuing our expansion in these areas, supporting more developers with finance requirements for quality property projects.

With a deep capital base from a variety of funding lines and a strict approval process, we can afford to be highly selective with who we choose to lend to. Working solely with experienced developers with a proven track record, we offer access to substantial capital from institutional and proprietary partners and the extensive CapitalRise network.

Funding loans from £1 million to £20 million and with a flawless track-record, we have supported the development of more than £571m worth of prime property across the UK and returned more than £93m to investors.
 

What can we hope to see from CapitalRise in the future?

 
More of the same! We continue to diversify our loan book and support developers with larger loan facilities, as well as continuing our expansion in the Home Counties.

We pride ourselves on our fully digitised processes that allow investors to onboard, invest and manage their portfolio completely online. We will continue to push digitisation of our processes and enhancing our customer journeys through the launch of new products and features. The expansion of our tech team will continue to enable us to deliver new features faster.

The beauty of the real estate finance industry is that it is very old fashioned which makes it ripe for digital disruption, creating fantastic opportunities for digitally minded lenders like ourselves.