REIT ASIAPAC
Interview
ARA-BACKED MINTEREST CROWDFUNDS DESPITE PANDEMIC
Technology is an important enabler, however, understanding the fundamentals of finance is equally critical to create a functional algorithm, says Minterest.
Minterest Team Office
Minterest, a Singapore-based company formed in 2016, is a crowdfunding platform that links corporate and individual borrowers with international lenders who are keen to invest into real estate or SME loans. It was started by Charis Liau, who currently serves as CEO, and Ronnie Chia, as COO. Both Charis and Ronnie are from the banking and finance industry and former colleagues at an international bank.
On May 5, Minterest announced that real estate giant ARA Asset Management acquired a stake in the company. A few weeks on, it also announced that it had raised S $ 500,000( US $ 371,000) in 11 minutes through its platform for its first real estate product. The short-term fixed-income product was backed by the secured mezzanine debt financing of a A $ 440 million( US $ 315 million), 64-level high-rise residential development project in Melbourne’ s central business district, which offered a gross return of 6 % per annum for a minimum tenor of three months.
To date, Minterest has facilitated a cumulative origination volume of over S $ 145 million in Singapore across its corporate and consumer businesses. It has also raised over S $ 43 million for three real estate products so far.
REITAsiaPac sat down with Liau to discuss her views on innovations in real estate financing and Proptech. Here is what she has to say:
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