Sebastian Watkins is one of four co-founders of Lendi, the Sydney mortgage broking company founded in 2013. The others are David Hyman, Martin Lam and Mark Kalajzich. Watkins has served as group chief operating officer of Lendi Group.
Watkins and Hyman met at their first job out of university. They started their first business together by borrowing money from their parents. Lendi came out of that partnership.
Lendi paired a digital home loan platform with human brokers. It took on the big four banks in home loans, a market dominated by branch and franchise networks.
In May 2021 Lendi merged with Aussie Home Loans, a business of the Commonwealth Bank. The merger created Lendi Group, with Domain Home Loans added. The network grew to more than 1,000 brokers, plus 200 more from Domain Home Loans. The first full year of the merged group produced A$33.6 billion in settlements.