financial technology peer to peer lending founded august 2010 founder samir desai james meekings andrew mullinger headquarters london uk area served uk united states germany netherlands spain key people samir desai ceo products business loan commercial and industrial loan website www.fundingcircle.com funding circle is a peer to peer lending marketplace that allows investors to lend money directly to small and medium sized businesses . 1 funding circle was the first website to use the process of peer to peer lending for business funding in the uk 2 and now operates in the uk us germany spain and the netherlands . as of january 2016 funding circle has facilitated over 1 billion in loans to small and medium sized firms . 3 contents 1 history 2 business model 2.1 risks 2.2 returns 3 references 4 external links history edit funding circle was launched in the uk in august 2010 . 1 it received 2.5 million in funding from index ventures in april 2011 . 4 in march 2012 funding circle closed a series b round of 10 million led by index ventures and union square ventures . 5 by september 2013 funding circle had tripled in size and announced it had facilitated over 150 million of loans since it launched . 6 in october 2013 funding circle announced that it had raised a 37 million investment and would merge with endurance lending network to serve the us market . accel partners led the round of funding along with ribbit capital union square ventures and index ventures bringing the company s total funding to 58 million . 7 8 since launching more than 50 000 people have registered at funding circle . investors now include local councils universities and the british government . 9 in april 2015 funding circle raised 150m in new venture funding led by dst global a fund managed by blackrock sands capital ventures and temasek holdings . valuing the company at over 1b the round brought the total amount raised to 272m to date . 10 in october 2015 funding circle expanded operations to germany spain and the netherlands by acquiring zencap . 11 business model edit funding circle is an online marketplace that enables investors to offer money direct to small companies . 12 businesses can borrow up to 1m 3m for property development in the uk up to 500k in the us and up to 250k in germany spain and the netherlands for up to 60 months . 13 14 initially the loan rate was set through an auction process but since september 2015 funding circle determines the loan rate offered based on risk category and loan term . 15 whole or fractional loans are purchased by individual and institutional investors from their respective countries . however only accredited individuals and institutional investors are allowed to participate on the us marketplace . 16 in addition loans are purchased by the funding circle sme fund an investment trust created in november 2015 that trades on the london stock exchange . 17 funding circle allows accredited investors in the us to invest using a tax advantaged individual retirement account and they are planning to allow uk investors to use an innovative finance individual savings account . 18 investors make money from the interest charged on purchased loans while funding circle makes money by charging borrowers an origination fee on each funded loan and by charging investors an annual servicing fee on the unpaid principal balance of outstanding loans . 16 risks edit unlike a savings account investments with funding circle are not guaranteed and may lose money if the underlying loan goes into default . funding circle assesses the credit of every business and those that qualify are given a risk band to guide investors on their relative strength . 19 for loans in the uk the total estimated lifetime bad debt across all risk bands is 3.9 % as of april 2016 . 20 returns edit as of april 2016 funding circle advertised an all time average annual return of 7.1 % after fees and bad debt for loans originated in the uk . 20 references edit a b dan hyde 18 september 2010 . how savers get 9 % rates and easy access . this is money . retrieved 2011 03 11 . patrick collinson 18 september 2010 . peer to peer lending and saving making everyone happy . the guardian . retrieved 2011 03 11 . funding circle statistics retrieved 29 january 2016 richard tyler 12 april 2011 . funding circle expands its small business reach . the telegraph . retrieved 2011 03 11 . funding circle closes 10 million series b round . startups.co.uk . 2 april 2012 . funding circle pass 150million in loans . p2p money . 23 september 2013 . retrieved 2013 11 04 . rebecca grant 23 october 2013 . uk based funding circle raises 37m to fund american small businesses . venture beat . retrieved 2013 11 04 . kylie maclellan 24 october 2013 . uk peer to peer lender funding circle expands with u.s. deal . reuters . retrieved 2013 11 04 . hugo duncan 14 august 2013 . faster lower cost finance for businesses that are fed up with banks funding circle boss says peer to peer lending boom has only just begun . this is money . retrieved 2013 11 04 . ingrid lunden 22 april 2015 . p2p lending site funding circle raises 150m led by dst at a 1b valuation . tech crunch . retrieved 2016 04 27 . jd alois 20 october 2015 . funding circle goes global with acquisition of zencap . crowdfund insider . retrieved 2016 04 27 . barclays criticises small business lending targets . bbc news . 13 august 2010 . retrieved 2011 03 11 . loan types and criteria . funding circle . retrieved 2016 04 28 . small business loans . funding circle . retrieved 2016 04 28 . jaime toplin 9 september 2015 . why funding circle is shifting its lending model . business insider . retrieved 2016 04 28 . a b frequently asked questions . funding circle . retrieved 2016 04 28 . funding circle launches first p2p investment trust . financial times . 30 november 2015 . retrieved 2016 04 28 . funding circle isa survey results . funding circle . retrieved 2016 04 28 . funding circle investor guide . altfi . 4 september 2015 . retrieved 2016 04 28 . a b marketplace performance . funding circle . retrieved 2016 04 28 . external links edit funding circle s website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title funding circle & oldid 741251228 categories peer to peer lending companiesfinancial services companies established in 2010companies based in londonfinancial services companies based in londonbritish companies established in 2010 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last 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