The Intermediary –- June 2026 - Flipbook - Page 53
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know what they’re doing in that sector. That
real plethora of cases ranging from vanilla to
very complex, that will always be there.
“The role of technology is not to work
towards the utopia of fully automated
transactions, but to remove the manual
processes that can be resolved.”
To that end, kennek’s solution plays its part
to provide automation on the back end, so that
– as Mawdesley puts it – people can “do what
they do best […] and solve problems to make
sure the deal goes through.”
Building the tech stack
For Morpheus Lending, automation in the
specialist market means having a carefully
selected toolbox. Where kennek comes in is to
handle everything post-completion, working,
for Mawdesley, as “our loan management
system, our ledger, our backend information
database, and also our reporting engine.”
One of the reasons the business stood out,
he adds, is that rather than “technologists
trying to solve a problem for this market,”
Fairhurst and the other key players at kennek
hail from lending and finance, and the business’
mission is “fuelling the real economy.”
Fairhurst says: “We understand the actual
challenges of this market. What we’re looking
to solve depends on the intricacies of each
lender, their different styles. Most lenders want
to deploy more capital, and to do that, you
need to demonstrate that you can provide a
solid audit trail, and that people pay you back.”
The kennek platform helps lenders
demonstrate reporting and transparency to
funders, and allows for better understanding
and tracking of performance and risk.
“In other words, we are able to accelerate
the fluidity of funding coming into the
marketplace,” Fairhurst continues.
“As an example, they can see where the LTV
exposure is on a certain region at any given
time. All of those different things that can
happen on a day-to-day basis are there, and the
lender can see it for themselves. That brings a
level of confidence.”
For Morpheus, this solution forms part of its
wider tech stack, which includes no less than
12 APIs to automate and authenticate data
gathering, including ID, KYC, AML, valuations
and Land Registry – this is in addition to
proprietary systems. This complexity is why
working with the right external partners has
been crucial.
Morpheus invested in kennek when it had
around 20 loans on the back book, at which
stage it could have been managed manually.
However, Mawdesley says, getting the right
systems in place was about being prepared to
scale quickly and properly.
Mawdesley says: “We spent our time, effort
and money putting the right platform in place
for the future. Obviously, then we had MFS
and a wider macro shock around credit and
specialist lending, but we’ve not really seen
a great deal of prodding and poking, because
[funders] know exactly where our book’s up
to, and they can see all of those transactions
cleanly and transparently.
“If you are a larger lender and you’re
operating with 15 different funding lines
and everything’s on a spreadsheet, that is
something that would keep me up at night.”
Pit-stops and standing starts
Morpheus Lending, having launched in a digital
age and built its processes from the ground
up, is of course in a very different proposition
to an established lender with longstanding
legacy systems.
Fairhurst says: “For a lender that’s using a
legacy system, or is using some Excel or some
disparate system that maybe doesn’t connect,
they might be trying to solve a multitude
of problems.”
Indeed, whether or not these problems have
clear solutions, there is still the challenge of
making deep structural changes while lending
continues. Fairhurst and Mawdesley liken this
to trying to change the tyres on an F1 car while
it is still driving – impossible, and quite frankly,
dangerous to attempt.
Mawdesley says: “When you are dealing
with large established players, and this is very
much the case in the specialist sector, the
technology infrastructure and the operational
guardrails around those businesses, the people,
the culture, they were all built for the past, not
for the future. You’ve got to stop that car to
change the wheel, but most lenders can’t do
that, because they need to continually meet
their growth targets.
“Where we came at this was starting from
scratch with a completely blank piece of paper,
and we built Morpheus in a far cleaner, digitalfirst, technology-centric fashion. Yes, we’re still
quite early on in our journey, but we are already
completely digital from end to end.
“What that means from a client and a broker
perspective is that we can do deals in three
days that involve zero paper, and you could be
anywhere in the world.
“Having a young, small business with super
experienced people around the outside,
but also having the ability to move quickly, →
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