Funding Circle founder steps back from P2P investment trust
FUNDING Circle’s Samir Desai (pictured) has stepped down from the platform’s investment trust to focus on the peer-to-peer lending side of the business.
Desai, who was a non-executive and non independent director of the Funding Circle SME Income Fund (FCIF), launched in November 2015, will now focus on his duties as chief executive of the Funding Circle Group, according to a stock market announcement.
This is the third Funding Circle division that Desai has stepped back from in the past month after he had directorships terminated at Funding Circle Property Finance and Funding Circle Trustee, according to Companies House documents.
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His position at the investment trust will be taken by Sachin Patel, chief capital officer at Funding Circle.
Richard Boleat, chairman of FCIF, paid tribute to Desai.
“I would like to extend my thanks to Samir for his time on the board since listing the company, and welcome Sachin as our new director and Funding Circle representative,” he said.
“Sachin has been deeply involved with the fund since inception through to initial public offering and beyond, and as chief capital officer, his expertise will allow us to continue to manage and grow the company in due course.”
The FCIF invests in loans on the Funding Circle platform. It raised £142m last month through a C share issue and its net asset value has returned 6.93 per cent since inception.
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