Tech entrepreneur Kailash Pardasani has acquired a ten per cent stake in peer-to-peer lending company Carilend Caribbean Holdings Limited, two years after being one of its first clients.
In a release, the fintech company also announced that the Jamaica-based Victoria Mutual Investments Limited has acquired a 30 per cent stake in its operations.
While the release did not give details of the acquisitions, it said the new investment meant that Carilend will be able to spread its operations to Jamaica and elsewhere in the region.
Founded in 2015 by executives Mark Linehan and Mark Young, Carilend began fully integrated end-to-end online lending via an electronic exchange platform.
Its first success was the introduction of a peer-to-peer lending service in Barbados in 2017.
Young, who is the chief executive officer of the business, has a 25-year track record as a regional senior executive with Barclays and CIBC in the Caribbean.
He said: “This partnership between Victoria Mutual Investments Limited and Carilend is the first step in expanding Carilend’s fintech capabilities across the region.
“We look forward to launching our fintech platform in Jamaica later this year and further expanding in the Caribbean in 2020.
The statement explained that the partnership between Victoria Mutual and Carilend “draws on the similarities of the peer-to-peer lending concept of lenders and borrowers helping each other and the mutual
society model of members helping members”.
“It represents the perfect match of a new agile fintech with a storied financial institution that has a clear vision for the future,” it added.
Chief Executive Officer of Victoria Mutual Investment Ltd Rez Burchenson said his company was attracted to the investment opportunity “due to the value of the emerging technology which has the potential in other areas of finance with the ability to scale within the Caribbean”.
“This certainly represents a long-term investment for our shareholders,” said Burchenson.
Peer-to-peer lending, considered a billion-dollar industry globally, connects people who have money to lend with people who want to borrow money in a secure online marketplace.
Commenting on the transaction Pardasani said: “As a techpreneur I am excited to invest in Carilend given the disruptive potential their platform has to deliver, bringing exciting change across the Caribbean”.
Pardasani who owns computer retailers Promotech Inc. and HP Store Barbados added: “The impact they have already had in Barbados prompted me first to be a client and now an investor in the business.”
Pardasani is also engaged in several real estate developments, distribution, sports and hospitality businesses.
In its first two years of operation in Barbados, Carilend approved over 1,200 loans valued at over $19 million.
