Funding Circle might soon become a billion-dollar tech firm

23 March 2015 | By Shruti Tripathi Chopra

London’s on a roll with producing 

billion-dollar tech companies.

The latest entrant? Peer-to-peer lender Funding 
Circle, which lets members of the public and
some organisations make loans to small
businesses.

The London-based tech start-up is set to raise
£50m in the next two months. The new funding,
according to the Sunday Times, will give Funding
Circle a $1bn valuation. However, a spokesperson
from Funding Circle told us that this is all
speculationat the moment. Funding Circle was
founded in 2010 by Samir Desai (CEO),
James Meekings (CMO) and Andrew Mullinger.
The tech start-up boasts high profile investors
including Betfair co-founder Ed Wray and
Carphone Warehouse co-founder
Charles Dunstone.

Here are 5 things you should know about Funding Circle:

1. Funding Circle is the world’s leading
marketplace exclusively focused on small
businesses. More than £550m has been
lent to UK businesses to date.
Over $850m has been lent to 8,000
businesses
globally.

2. Since launching, Funding Circle has raised
$123m in equity capital from investors who
backed Facebook, Twitter, Skype and Betfair.

3. Funding Circle has over 37,000 active
investors registered and over 8,000
businesses have borrowed from
the company.

4. Funding Circle lends £35m to small
businesses every month.

5. The average loan amount is £60,000
and businesses can borrow up to £1m.