Funding Circle US has posted several job openings in their capital markets unit including a job posting for a head of US capital markets; Albert Periu, former global co-head of capital markets, has left the firm and become founder of Neptune Financial; according to Funding Circle, Sachin Patel is currently managing global capital markets and he is planning to create a US capital markets team similar to its UK counterpart. Source
UK online lender Funding Circle has announced it will be slowing its property lending with plans to fully end the product by mid 2018; the firm is primarily focused on SME lending and says the refocused strategy will help it to increase SME lending and shift its resources for international expansion; property loans have previously only been available to UK borrowers and the product has accounted for approximately 5% of the company's revenue. Source
Funding Circle and Zopa both discussed the rationale for becoming a bank at the AltFi Europe Summit; Funding Circle's Samir Desai talked about three ways online lenders are collaborating with banks and said, "We at Funding Circle have no plans to launch a bank."; comparatively, Zopa is taking the opposite approach and Jaidev Janardana discussed the firm's bank expansion, noting that the firm will be focusing on savings deposit accounts and will be using deposits to fund loans. Source
P2P-banking.com has reported international P2P lending originations for February; Funding Circle led originations with 121.4 million euros ($127.67 million) in loans originated; Funding Circle also surpassed 2 billion British pounds ($2.46 billion) in cumulative loan originations during the month; Zopa and RateSetter followed Funding Circle with Zopa reporting 89.8 million euros and RateSetter reporting originations of 72.3 million euros; the list does not include P2P lenders in the US. Source
Despite initial concerns over risks from Brexit, the UK's Funding Circle has been growing significantly; Funding Circle is one of four firms Bloomberg plans to follow throughout the Brexit process which will begin when Prime Minister Theresa May triggers Article 50 of the EU Treaty; for Funding Circle, results following the Brexit vote in June have been overwhelmingly positive; in the second half of 2016, originations increased 50% from 2015 to 530 million British pounds ($685 million) and in the fourth quarter of 2016 the firm's UK division reported its first net profit; while some funding challenges and employee visa risks still remain, the firm's business seems likely to continue its positive trajectory; low rates on fixed income investments in the UK and slowed bank lending to small businesses appear to continue as leading factors for the firm's growth. Source
BlackRock's investment in the Funding Circle SME Income Fund has increased to 15%; meanwhile Aberdeen's ownership has also increased to a substantial share; investments from the institutional managers show the success of the Fund and the confidence in its management; Sachin Patel is the Fund's lead portfolio manager and the Funding Circle SME Income Fund has grown to assets under management of approximately GBP300 million ($383.5 million) following a recent C-Share issuance. Source
The Funding Circle SME Income Fund has doubled its investments with a 142 million British pound ($176 million) fundraising; the fundraising is the result of a new C share offering which will convert to ordinary shares within nine months; the Fund is now valued at over 300 million British pounds ($371 million) and has the capacity to issue approximately 350 million more shares in the next twelve months. Source
Firm is currently launching a new C share to broaden its investment offering and increase assets under management which are currently at approximately 167 million British pounds ($206.25 million); this is one of the market's most recently launched closed end funds with a diversified portfolio of P2P business loans; in its initial launch it raised 150 million British pounds ($185.25 million); the fund has no management or performance fees and targets an annual total return of 8% to 9%. Source
Funding Circle has announced a new $100 million multi-year investment agreement with Community Investment Management including provisions for additional investment; the $100 million investment will focus on small businesses in the US; the investment supports continued growth for Funding Circle which has reported monthly lending of over 100 million British pounds ($122.92 million) since November. Source
Funding Circle has reported cumulative originations of over 2 billion British pounds in P2P loans since its launch in 2010; it is the largest online marketplace for small business loans and has been originating approximately 100 million British pounds a month since November; its cumulative loan originations are currently just slightly less than Zopa which surpassed 2 billion British pounds in January and was the industry's first platform to launch in 2005. Source