Funding Circle, a UK-founded peer-to-peer lending platform for small businesses, has announced its intention to raise £300 million by listing on London Stock Exchange. The IPO would value the company at up to £2 billion, the Financial Times reported earlier this year.
Founded in 2010, Funding Circle offers loans of £50,000 to £500,000 to small businesses in the UK, US, Germany, and the Netherlands from a pool of lenders. The company has facilitated the lending of some £5 billion from 80,000 lenders to 50,000 borrowers since its inception, of which more than £1 billion had been lent in the first half of 2018.
As of the end of June, Funding Circle had £2.5 million worth of loans under management. The company's revenue reached £94.5 million in 2017, almost doubling compared to £50.9 million in 2016. In the first half of 2018, the company reported £63 million in revenue, up from £40.9 in the same period of 2017.
Anders Povlsen, a Danish billionaire who owns stakes in fashion retailers Asos and Zalando, has committed to buying a 10 percent stake in Funding Circle as part of the IPO sale.
Funding Circle has raised north of $400 million to date from a range of investors including Index Ventures, DST Global, Accel, BlackRock, and others. The company plans to use the funds raised during the public share sale to expand into new geographies.
“Funding Circle will focus on driving growth over profitability through the medium term, and incur elevated marketing spend through 2020,” the company stated in the official announcement.
In the photo (left to right): Funding Circle co-founders Samir Desai, James Meekings, and Andrew Mullinger
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