ARA, JL family office acquire majority stake in crowdfunding platform

This marks ARA’s foray into the fintech scene.

ARA Asset Management’s (ARA) APM Property Management and John Lim’s family office have jointly acquired a majority stake in Singapore-based crowdfunding platform Minterest, a press release revealed.

The deal seeks to expand the alternative finance platform to meet the growing demand for crowdfunding. This marks ARA’s first foray into the fintech sector.

Established in 2016, Minterest is a non-bank fintech company in Singapore with licences to provide both corporate and personal loans, and boasts a cumulative deal origination of over $85m.

The investment in Minterest is in line with ARA’s recent acquisition of a majority stake in Venn Partners, a London-based specialist debt fund manager with $8.8b (£5b) of assets under management.

“In the current and near-term volatile market environment driven by reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic, the real estate credit market is a positive space to be in as the security and covenant protection relative to equity exposure is regarded as more defensive,” the firms stated in a joint release.

In addition, Minterest will be launching its first real estate secured mezzanine debt financing product in the coming weeks, by way of co-investment with Straits and John Lim co-owned company Straits Real Estate (SRE).