Somo’s loan book rises by a fifth to £254m in 2022

The lender accredited its Black Friday promotion for delivering its busiest month so far in November, which it said resulted in a fourfold increase in deals per day. The promotion gave borrowers a 90 per cent refund on valuations for applications made within a certain time period. 

Somo also said business enquiries were five times higher than usual in October. 

Over the year, the lender has supported its growth by increasing its team by 40 per cent, including the appointments of Laurel Livesey as underwriter, Rachel Killeen as valuations manager as well as Greg Applewhaite and Duncan Winsland as relationship directors. It said there were plans to recruit further in the new year.

Somo also promoted Jade Keval from the role of business development manager to sales director earlier this year. 

Additionally, the lender plans to launch a personal and business insolvency and bankruptcy product next year, it also seeks to grow relationships with networks and packagers.  

Louis Alexander (pictured), founder and CEO at Somo said: “Despite the economic turbulence we all experienced in 2022, thanks to the hard work and expertise of the Somo team, we’ve had an exceptional year. 

“It has always been our mission to get a deal completed swiftly, simply and safely and we’ve been able to achieve this thanks to market-leading products, seasoned bridging specialists, human-touch client service and multiple funding lines that allow us to complete on a wide variety of loan scenarios.”