Proplend is a specialist commercial property lender with a dedicated team of finance professionals working collaboratively and efficiently to provide cost effective, flexible first charge loans secured on commercial properties in England and Wales. We lend to commercial property investors who are individuals, partnerships, limited companies, llps, pensions, trusts and offshore companies.
Technology is core to our business, we are innovative and our wide-range of loans provides alternative solutions for customers, often when other lenders have said “no”. We look to work closely with our Borrowers from loan enquiry to loan drawdown through to loan redemption, its about building relationships and we have many repeat borrowers.
Enquiries are reviewed individually, no two commercial properties are alike, with decisions made by people not machines. If we cannot assist with an enquiry, we will advise so promptly. Our team is fully trained and accessible to you – just a phone call away.
Proplend is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”)and is a
Patron of the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers (“NACFB”), which
drives our underlying principles and strong governance.
Proplend is a fiduciary to our clients. The money which flows across the platform belongs to our clients who trust us to serve them by offering the best risk adjusted returns which match their investment criteria and lending appetite.
The trust our clients place with us to help them achieve their financial goals is something we take extremely seriously.
The need for income and uncorrelated returns against a backdrop of higher inflation, volatility in the stock markets and distress in the banking sector will continue to drive demand from alternative lending platforms.
Our scale, technology and innovation helps us to continuously improve our operational excellence to the benefit of both our Borrowing and Lending clients.
“I was at the coal face during the financial crisis, when the banks and building societies retreated from the sub-£5m commercial property market and left a vacuum. This sector makes up almost a quarter of all outstanding commercial real estate debt market in the UK, so it’s a significant part of total lending. I saw an opportunity to provide much-needed funding to commercial property investors, while in this long term low interest rate environment, offering attractive returns to investors desperately looking for yield”.
Brian Bartaby
Proplend CEO & Founder
Brian Bartaby
CEO & Founder
In 2003 Brian founded Longcross Capital, a firm specialising in providing financial solutions for real estate investors and developers. He spent 12 years successfully structuring funding deals to meet his clients ever changing requirements, which ultimately led him to develop the Proplend platform. Prior to property finance he spent 13 years working in London, NY and HK managing FX and Options trading desks where he developed a solid understanding of risk.
Matt Carson
Chief Operating Officer
Matt has over 20 years’ experience covering all aspects of Operations Management and inter-related functions. Therefore, bringing a wealth of experience and a proven track record in this field by ensuring best practices are always adopted and adhered to. Prior to joining Proplend, Matt spent nearly 15 years at Morgan Stanley as Head of European and Asian Real Estate Loan Operations and more recently close to 5 years at Hatfield Philips (Situs) a commercial real estate loan servicing platform.
Kate Heal
Finance & Office Manager
Kate has 20 years’ experience as an executive assistant. During this time she also managed and developed her own and other clients' property portfolios. Kate started at Proplend on day one and was instrumental in establishing corporate, financial and operational processes. She continues to oversea Client Monies and more recently has been engaging with Lender clients.
Theo Theodosiadis
Head of Credit
Theo brings a wealth of asset-backed lending experience to Proplend, having worked with London-based boutique investment firms for the past 10 years. Theo’s expertise lies in complex debt funding structures across various asset classes in the UK and abroad. He holds an MBA in Banking and Finance; and an MSc in Strategic Management from the University of York.
Stewart Bruce
Business Development Manager
Stewart has 30 years of financial services experience, the majority of which is property specific. Most recently he worked with a P2P residential development platform, Invest and Fund. Prior to this, Stewart was at Lloyds BG spending 12 years in retail banking followed by 12 years in commercial banking, specialising in providing commercial and residential investment and development finance.
Rafina Akhtar
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
Rafina has over 20 years financial services experience working across many different disciplines. Most recently she was specialising in the field of loan underwriting for both commercial and residential loan applications for which she has a natural analytical aptitude, coupled with strong relationship management skills.
Will Bottoms
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
Will joined the property financing arena six years ago. He started his career at LDN Finance as a Case Manager before being promoted to Specialist Financial Advisor, and then moving on to Rangewell and Sedulo working as a Senior Commercial Finance Manager. Will’s solid brokerage background and pragmatic approach will bring a different perspective and vision to the Borrower Team. Will is a proud graduate of Loughborough University.
Tony May
Technical Lead
With 17 years’ technology experience, Tony has been instrumental with the development of the Proplend platform since its inception. This started by being outsourced via his own agency and over time he has now become a full time employee with Proplend. He was formerly Head of Technology at Zopa, the worlds first peer to peer lending platform.
Ven Gotte
Front End Developer
After graduating with a BSc in Computer Science in 2017 Ven has spent the last four years gaining experience working as a junior software developer and then a full-stack developer, latterly with Jigsaw Digital in Newcastle where he was building applications in multiple tech stacks. Having recently relocated to London, Ven will be improving and updating the user interfaces on our web application to improve the user website experience.
Brian Bartaby
CEO & Founder
In 2003 Brian founded Longcross Capital, a firm specialising in providing financial solutions for real estate investors and developers. He spent 12 years successfully structuring funding deals to meet his clients ever changing requirements, which ultimately led him to develop the Proplend platform. Prior to property finance he spent 13 years working in London, NY and HK managing FX and Options trading desks where he developed a solid understanding of risk.
Matt Carson
Chief Operating Officer
Matt has over 20 years’ experience covering all aspects of Operations Management and inter-related functions. Therefore, bringing a wealth of experience and a proven track record in this field by ensuring best practices are always adopted and adhered to. Prior to joining Proplend, Matt spent nearly 15 years at Morgan Stanley as Head of European and Asian Real Estate Loan Operations and more recently close to 5 years at Hatfield Philips (Situs) a commercial real estate loan servicing platform.
Kate Heal
Finance & Office Manager
Kate has 20 years’ experience as an executive assistant. During this time she also managed and developed her own and other clients' property portfolios. Kate started at Proplend on day one and was instrumental in establishing corporate, financial and operational processes. She continues to oversea Client Monies and more recently has been engaging with Lender clients.
Theo Theodosiadis
Head of Credit
Theo brings a wealth of asset-backed lending experience to Proplend, having worked with London-based boutique investment firms for the past 10 years. Theo’s expertise lies in complex debt funding structures across various asset classes in the UK and abroad. He holds an MBA in Banking and Finance; and an MSc in Strategic Management from the University of York.
Stewart Bruce
Business Development Manager
Stewart has 30 years of financial services experience, the majority of which is property specific. Most recently he worked with a P2P residential development platform, Invest and Fund. Prior to this, Stewart was at Lloyds BG spending 12 years in retail banking followed by 12 years in commercial banking, specialising in providing commercial and residential investment and development finance.
Rafina Akhtar
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
Rafina has over 20 years financial services experience working across many different disciplines. Most recently she was specialising in the field of loan underwriting for both commercial and residential loan applications for which she has a natural analytical aptitude, coupled with strong relationship management skills.
Will Bottoms
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
Will joined the property financing arena six years ago. He started his career at LDN Finance as a Case Manager before being promoted to Specialist Financial Advisor, and then moving on to Rangewell and Sedulo working as a Senior Commercial Finance Manager. Will’s solid brokerage background and pragmatic approach will bring a different perspective and vision to the Borrower Team. Will is a proud graduate of Loughborough University.
Tony May
Technical Lead
With 17 years’ technology experience, Tony has been instrumental with the development of the Proplend platform since its inception. This started by being outsourced via his own agency and over time he has now become a full time employee with Proplend. He was formerly Head of Technology at Zopa, the worlds first peer to peer lending platform.
Ven Gotte
Front End Developer
After graduating with a BSc in Computer Science in 2017 Ven has spent the last four years gaining experience working as a junior software developer and then a full-stack developer, latterly with Jigsaw Digital in Newcastle where he was building applications in multiple tech stacks. Having recently relocated to London, Ven will be improving and updating the user interfaces on our web application to improve the user website experience.