Subject to audit, its pre-tax profit is estimated to be £1.98m, the firm’s largest annual profit to date.

This marks three consecutive years of profit for the lender.

Throughout 2021, Folk2Folk achieved numerous milestones, including hitting an annual lending record of £108m, which resulted in cumulative lending volumes exceeding £500m.

In addition, the lender expanded into Northern Ireland and secured a £7m investment commitment from British Business Investments.

•   What will affect valuations in 2022 and beyond?
•   Folk2Folk exceeds half a billion in lending
•   Folk2Folk secures £7m from British Business Investments

Roy Warren, managing director at Folk2Folk (pictured above), said: “I am proud that during 2021, we delivered on what we said we’re going to do and are financially robust, but we’re not stopping there; we have ambitious growth plans for this year, which are already moving ahead at pace. 

“We see huge opportunities to write considerable volumes of loans across the UK, and institutional investment is a key part of our strategy to support that.

”We also expect the alternative finance market to continue to consolidate and present opportunity for us to acquire loan books from other platforms. 

“We see this as a growth area for us and are actively looking within the market to move forward with this.

“We have to anticipate that 2022 is likely to be a challenging year for everyone, with a backdrop of inflation, rising interest rates, and hostilities in Eastern Europe all feeding into an uncertain external environment — this makes having a solid and sound base for any business ever more important. 

“With only a small handful of lending platforms turning a profit, our strong profit levels evidence Folk2Folk’s stability in terms of finances, business levels and governance, and we know this supports investor and borrower confidence in us.”