Funding Circle partners with Just Eat
FUNDING Circle has joined forces with takeaway app Just Eat, in a move aimed at helping the 30,000 restaurants which make use of the app have greater access to finance.
Restaurants that are members of the Just Eat network will benefit from a discounted administration fee, and may be able to borrow up to £60,000. The move is particularly aimed at the thousands of small, family-run takeaways that make up the majority of Just Eat restaurants.
Petra Turkish Restaurant, based in Islington, has already made use of the partnership to obtain funding to refurbish the premises.
“Our business is booming,” said Yilmaz Guney, owner of Petra Turkish Restaurant. “Recently, we were looking to take advantage of an opportunity to expand the business, but the banks were slow and couldn’t provide us with the help we needed.
“Our partners Just Eat directed us to Funding Circle who arranged the loan for us in a matter of days. By not spending months speaking with the banks I was able to get the finance I needed and focus on running the business and planning for the future.”
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Funding Circle is now the UK’s largest peer-to-peer lender, having passed Zopa in terms of cumulative lending in May.
“Small businesses are the backbone of our economy,” said James Meekings, co-founder and Managing Director at Funding Circle. “Their commitment and aspiration to make things better is what drives the UK forward. Nowhere is this more evident than the great tradition of the British takeaway restaurant. Together with Just Eat we are working to support the fantastic owners behind the nation’s takeaways to access the finance they need to grow and to get on with achieving their goals.”
Funding Circle recently announced that its global lending had increased 80 per cent to a record £800m in the first half of 2017. More than 8,000 businesses have accessed funding across the UK, US and Germany, with global lending surpassing a cumulative total of £3bn.
It has also now been fully authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, paving the way for the firm to launch an Innovative Finance ISA.
