Paratus AMC acquires Funding Empire stake

Paratus AMC is a residential mortgage service and lender with £2.6bn of assets under management and circa 27,000 accounts.

Funding Empire, which arranges P2P loans for businesses, will continue to be based in Cardiff. It is Wales’ only peer-to-peer lending platform and was founded in November 2013 by Para Patel.

Hans Geberbauer, chief executive of Paratus AMC, said: “We are delighted to have Parag and his team on board. They have built an excellent platform. In the fast moving P2P lending environment, they have resisted the temptation to take short cuts and built out Funding Empire’s business with great care.

“Combined with our strong balance sheet, mature back office and proven ability in managing secured assets on a large scale, this is a great opportunity to create a market leading business in the dynamic P2P lending market.”

Parag Patel, managing director of Funding Empire, said: “With the backing of Paratus AMC and its extensive infrastructure, we will now be able to accelerate our development of the Funding Empire platform and of new funding and lending products without compromising our reputation for taking a very thorough, transparent and customer-centric approach to doing business.”