- Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou is launching an investment platform called easyMoney.
- The first product will be an “Innovative ISA” allowing people to invest in peer-to-peer loans, backed by property, that easyMoney will write.
- easyMoney plans to launch more personal finance products in the future.
LONDON — Serial entrepreneur Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou is getting into fintech by launching his own online savings and lending platform.
easyMoney will help write online peer-to-peer loans secured against people’s property. The capital will be drawn from investors in easyMoney’s new “Innovative ISA”, which is targeting annual interest of 4% for investors.
Innovative ISAs were launched by the government in 2014 to allow ordinary people to invest in innovative new fintech products, such as peer-to-peer loans, in a tax efficient manner.
easyMoney’s new ISA will compete with the likes of Funding Circle, which advertises rates of up to 7%, and RateSetter’s ISA, which will open to new investors from the start of next month.
Haji-Ioannou, best known for founding easyJet in 1995, said in a statement: “Everyday investors in the UK have gone almost a decade without real interest rates. With the easyMoney Innovative Finance ISA, we’re offering something new and taking on the big boys.”
Property developer Andrew de Candole will serve as the CEO of easyMoney. He said in a statement: “We’re offering a clear, simple alternative to a cash ISA for investors looking for real returns in exchange for a little more risk. The inflation-busting interest rates we target are streets ahead of anything the banks could contemplate.”
easyMoney says it plans to launch more products in the future “through its cutting-edge fintech platform.” easyMoney will sit within Haji-Ioannou’s Easy group of companies, which include easyHotel, easyGym, easyFoodstore, and easyGym.
Haji-Ioannou, who remains easyJet’s biggest shareholder, has an estimated net worth of $1.6 billion according to Forbes.
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