Perenna, a UK-based mortgage fintech startup, announced on Monday it secured $10 million through its Seed funding round, which included investments from Kevin Flaherty, the former head of structured products at Deutsche Bank, Tony Mallin MBE, managing partner of Star Capital. Founded in 2018, Perenna claims it is building an innovative digital mortgage bank that will revolutionize the UK mortgage market.
“For decades, consumers in the UK have seen very little mortgage product innovation and lending processes remain largely inefficient, inflexible and slow. Our launch product will be a flexible 30 year fixed rate mortgage providing full payment certainty and protecting borrowers against interest rate rises Our new technology platform is the most advanced in the mortgage market. Mortgages are approved rapidly, and you can track every part of the journey on your mobile.”
Perenna noted it is planning to use the $10 million to launch 30-year fixed-rate mortgages and aim to issue the first loans this October. The company noted it expects to price its loans with a fixed rate of between 3 percent and 3.5 percent, which will not change for the term of the mortgage.
“We will fund mortgages by issuing so-called covered bonds, which it expects to be popular with defined-benefit pension funds and with insurers wanting a safe investment that yields more than gilts.”
Perenna then added that covered bonds are seen as being of low risk because they are secured on the property of the borrower and on the issuer.