Leeds-based peer-to-peer lending platform rebuildingsociety – which has a £3.5m loan book and has grown 250 per cent since December 2013 – marked its best month ever in July.

A total £610,000 of loans advanced to seven UK businesses included rebuildingsociety’s largest to date – £315,000 to Norfolk-based excavation and groundwork specialists GRA Project Management.

rebuildingsociety enables individuals to lend varying amounts of money – starting from just £10 – to established UK businesses. Companies repay monthly loans to the peer to peer lending platform, which acts as an administrator on behalf of its lenders. As part of a crowd, individuals earn pre-tax annual returns from 8-20 per cent, while businesses receive vital growth finance quickly, with no early repayment charges.

Daniel Rajkumar, rebuildingsociety’s MD commented: “It’s tremendous that our platform is acting as a magnet for more investors and lending to established companies like GRA Project Management, who come on board because they can secure a loan in weeks rather than months.

“In this instance, the contractor used the loan to buy equipment that it was previously leasing, which made strong commercial sense and improved the company’s balance sheet.”

The peer-to-peer lending platform is seeking to increase its loan book to £6m this year – providing growth loans to up to 100 UK businesses.