Real estate credit manager Pluto Finance uses Ideals to streamline due diligence on a £500m fundraising project

Overview

Pluto Finance is a leading provider of real estate loans in the UK. Founded in 2011, it has already lent over £3 billion and enabled the delivery of more than 12,000 new homes.

The company considered several Virtual Data Room (VDR) providers for its fundraising projects before choosing Ideals for its intuitiveness and ease of use. Matteo Broggi, Associate Director of Fundraising and Investor Relations, estimates that Ideals saves the team “at least two hours per investor per project,” which has a significant impact on complex fundraising deals.

The team also appreciated the clear, transparent approach to pricing, which was “very competitive compared to other VDR providers.”

The context

Based in London, Pluto Finance provides senior secured development and bridge financing for both residential and commercial projects. Borrowing costs have increased in the UK real estate market in recent years, discouraging high street banks from lending, and creating a need for private credit providers such as Pluto. 

When the company wanted to raise substantial new debt funding, it became clear that the team could no longer rely on email; they needed a secure online platform where sensitive information could be stored, managed, and shared with designated stakeholders and global institutional investors. 

After looking at several data room providers, the team chose Ideals due to impressive user experience. “The Ideals VDR is very easy to use, it has a nice layout and design,” said Matteo.

Key challenges

Pluto Finance’s fundraising involved sums over £500 million and the team needed a secure and auditable platform to manage the due diligence process. 

Their initial requirements were:

• Secure storage for highly confidential documents
• Easy-to-manage permission levels to control access
• Tracking of all investor activity
• Auditable reporting to provide accountability. 

Their main priority was being able to monitor what users were doing. “It’s extremely important to keep track of investors’ activities within a project,” says Matteo.

Solutions

Pluto Finance has successfully completed a number of fundraising projects using Ideals. The team was able to:

• Save time on preparing data
• Upload documents quickly and easily
• Allocate different permission levels
• Get immediate updates on any new activity

Matteo said his team was delighted by how easy it was to set up a new data room. “The platform is intuitive, making it easy for users to upload, organize, and retrieve files without extensive training,” he explained.

“The speed of upload is also extremely quick and easy, making it very efficient to build a due diligence package.”

Most critically, the team now has complete visibility of how investors are engaging with documentation during the fundraising process. “The activity log is extremely important for us and the dashboard view within the VDR is excellent for giving a snapshot of a specific project,” says Matteo.

The future

Matteo believes that alternative lenders will continue to grow over the next five years, driven by the retrenching of traditional banks.

“Companies like Pluto Finance will have a major role in the global financial sector, by financing real assets and a larger set of products and projects,” he explains.

The company will continue using Ideals for its fundraising projects due to the speed, user experience, and competitive pricing. “The VDR has definitely saved us a lot of time in managing our investors and made due diligence more efficient,” he says.