Funding Circle hits £3bn lending milestone
FUNDING Circle has become the first UK peer-to-peer platform to reach the £3bn cumulative lending milestone.
The business finance provider said on its website that “30,948 UK businesses have financed their goals by borrowing £3bn through Funding Circle”.
In comparison, fellow ‘big three’ platforms Zopa and RateSetter have lent out around £2.85bn and £2.2bn respectively.
Zopa, which lent out a record £100m last month, said it expects to reach the £3bn mark in January.
Funding Circle has had a busy year, receiving full Financial Conduct Authority approval in May and unveiling a major re-brand in August. The firm began rolling out its Innovative Finance ISA last week, receiving almost instant sign-ups.
In a recent interview with Peer2Peer Finance News, co-founder and chief executive Samir Desai said that the company wants to get to £100bn a year of new lending, which would create three million new jobs a year.
He also said that Funding Circle is eyeing further international expansion.
“We’re in four markets [UK, Germany, the US and the Netherlands] and we’d like to enter more,” Desai said.
“Everyone else has taken the approach of doing lots of different products in one market; we do the same product but in lots of different countries. Ours is a better model because you get huge synergies on the investor side – if they trust you in one market, they are willing to invest in others.”