Funding Circle
FCH:LN
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Overview
Company Profile
Funding Circle is a peer-to-peer lending marketplace. Launched in 2010, the company has become a leading loans platform for SMEs in the UK, US, Germany and the Netherlands. Funding Circle has facilitated over £5bn of loans to 50,000 SMEs from 80,000 investors - including over £1bn in the first half of 2018. In terms of its financial position, in 2017 the company generated revenues of £94.5m compared to £50.9m in 2016. For the first half of 2018, revenue generated was £63m, a 62% growth from the same period the year before.
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Corporate
Board of Directors
Eric Daniels
Non-executive Director
Eric Daniels currently holds a range of business appointments which include Senior Adviser to CVC Capital Partners, Principal and Senior Adviser to StormHarbour, non-executive director of Russell Reynolds, Board Member of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and Trustee of the Smithsonian UK Charitable Trust. He is also an adviser or board member for several innovative technology companies. He was previously Group Chief Executive Officer of the Lloyds Banking Group, the FTSE 100 listed banking group, retiring in 2011. Prior to joining Lloyds in 2001, he spent 25 years with Citigroup in a range of management positions in Panama, Argentina, Chile, the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States. He holds a Master of Science in Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Arts in History from Cornell University.
Samir Desai CBE
Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer
Samir co-founded and is CEO of Funding Circle which launched in 2010. Funding Circle is a global lending platform where investors lend directly to small businesses in the UK, US, Germany and the Netherlands. Funding Circle has originated £5.0 billion+ of loans to 51,000+ businesses creating an estimated 75,000 jobs. Investors on the platform include 81,000 individuals, institutional investors, local councils, universities, and government organisations including the British Business Bank, KFW (German state development bank) and the European Investment Bank. Samir is responsible for driving the company’s strategy, and overseeing Funding Circle operations globally. Funding Circle is one of the best capitalised platforms globally, having raised ~£250 million from some of the worlds largest investors. Samir was previously a consultant at BCG and an investment executive at Olivant focused on financial services businesses. In 2015, Samir was awarded a CBE for services to financial services.
Sean Glithero
Chief Financial Officer
As Global CFO, Sean serves on the Funding Circle Board and is responsible for all aspects of Finance including internal audit, tax, treasury, procurement and investor relations. After qualifying as a chartered accountant with Ernst & Young, working within both the audit and corporate finance departments, Sean worked in the telecoms industry and for the FTSE 100 company BPB plc, prior to joining Auto Trader in 2006. Before taking on the role of CFO in 2012, Sean held various group and divisional roles in the business, helping the business reshape through acquisitions and disposals as well as aiding the transition online through restructuring and realignment programmes. In addition to a number of major re-financings during its private equity ownership, Sean helped Auto Trader undertake an Initial Public Offering in 2015 and join the FTSE 250 with annual profits now in excess of £200m. Sean holds a BA (Hons) in Accountancy from Exeter University.
Cath Keers
Non-executive Director
Cath is chair of ustwo, an independent digital product, games and venture business alongside other non-executive Director roles at Sage group plc and TalkTalk plc. She is also an advisor to a number of small businesses predominately in technology. She has recently held non-executive roles at the Royal Mail, Home Retail Group, LV= and Telefonica Europe. She previously held a number of commercial roles including marketing and business development at Sky TV, Avon and Next, latterly Marketing Director and Customer Director at O2, the mobile network and chairman of Tesco Mobile; O2’s joint venture with Tesco.
Andrew Learoyd
Chairman of the Board
ndrew spent 23 years working in investment banking as a research analyst, in corporate finance, equity capital markets and finally as COO of the Equities Division in Europe of Goldman Sachs. He retired as a Managing Director of Goldman Sachs in 2006, since then he has been involved as an angel investor, non-executive director and consultant to several start-up businesses. He became involved with Funding Circle at the outset when he met three ambitious young entrepreneurs with no office and no coffee but an idea to change the world of banking.
Harry Nelis
Non-executive Director
Harry joined Accel in 2004 and invests in both early and late-stage Internet and software companies. He led Accel’s investments in, among others, Check24, an online price comparison service for consumer financial products in Germany; Gameforge, a developer and publisher of MMOGs; Kayak, an online search service for consumer travel; and Showroomprive, an online private sales club. Before joining Accel, Harry was at Perry Capital, a $10 billion hedge fund, where he invested in public communications, media and technology companies. Prior to this, he was at Goldman Sachs, where he advised businesses on corporate finance and M&A transactions. Harry spent the first decade of his career in Silicon Valley, where he founded E-motion, a venture-backed software company. He started his career at Hewlett-Packard, where he held various engineering positions. Harry is an active member of the World Economic Forum and serves on the Selection Committee of the WEF Technology Pioneers Programme. Harry holds an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School and a PhD and MS in Electrical Engineering from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.
Neil Rimer
Non-executive Director
Neil Rimer is a co-founder and Partner of Index Ventures. In 1992, Neil started the venture capital activity of Index’s predecessor firm, later co-founding Index Ventures and raising the firm’s first fund in 1996. Neil’s current investment focus is on innovative solutions for energy and environmental problems. He is currently on the board of AlertMe, Fontself, doubleTwist, Lehigh Technologies, Moo Print, Netvibes, Photobox, Pulsic, Redwood Systems, Stack Exchange and Weatherbill. Neil sponsored many of the firm’s investments including Betfair, Ofoto (now Kodak), Trolltech (now Nokia), Listen (now Real Networks), Numerical Technologies (now Synopsis) and Genmab (SDE: GNA). He has also served on the Board of Directors of U.C. Sampdoria, a football club competing in the Italian Serie A. Before starting Index Ventures, Neil spent four years with Montgomery Securities in San Francisco.
Bob Steel
Non-executive Director
Bob is a partner at Perella Weinberg Partners. Prior to joining Perella, Bob was New York City’s Deputy Mayor for Economic Development where he was responsible for the Bloomberg Administration’s economic development strategy and job-creation efforts. As CEO of Wachovia Corporation in 2008, Bob oversaw the sale of the bank to Wells Fargo & Co. and served on the Wells Fargo board of directors until 2010. Bob has also served as the Under Secretary for Domestic Finance of the United States Treasury, Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs and a board member of Barclays. Bob is a graduate of Duke University and the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. He is Chairman of the Aspen Institute’s Board of Trustees and has served as Chairman of Duke’s Board of Trustees, Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, member of the FDIC Advisory Committee on Economic Inclusion, Chairman of The After-School Corporation, and Co-Founder of SeaChange Capital Partners.
Ed Wray
Non-executive Director
Edward Wray co-founded Betfair in 1999 with Andrew Black and was Chief Executive until 2003, when he moved to Australia to set up the company’s joint venture. He became Chairman in 2006. Betfair floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2010, valued at £1.4bn. It is one of the world’s largest online sports betting operators, processing more than 5 million transactions a day. Prior to setting up Betfair, Edward spent 8 years at J.P. Morgan & Co. as a Vice President in the debt capital markets & derivatives area.
Lucy Vernall
General Counsel
As Global General Counsel, Lucy heads up Funding Circle’s legal and compliance functions. Lucy was one of the founder members of Kemp Little LLP, a technology focused City law firm, where as head of corporate she worked on M&A, equity and debt financing for financial services and fintech companies. She was managing partner of Kemp Little from 2009 to 2011 when she became Wonga’s first General Counsel and built up the company’s international legal team, before joining Funding Circle in 2014.