Backed by the best
Funding Circle is backed by Index Ventures, a leading venture capital firm that has previously invested in successful companies including Betfair, Skype, Mysql, Playfish, Lastfm and LoveFilm and Union Square Ventures, a leading venture capital firm based in New York with early stage investments including Twitter, Zynga and Foursquare. Funding Circe is also backed by a group of private investors, including current and former heads of private equity firms, insurers, banks, IT companies and leading professional services providers. High profile private backers include Alan Morgan, former head of McKinsey & Co.'s Financial Services in the UK,Europe and the Middle East; Andy Homer, Chief Executive of Towergate Partnership; Charles Dunstone, co-founder of The Carphone Warehouse; Ed-Wray, co-founder of Betfair; Jon Moulton, the founder of private equity firm Better Capital, and former managing partner of Alchemy Partners; and Sam Lababidi, co-founder of Playfish.
Management team
Samir Desai, CEO and Co-Founder
Samir is responsible for driving the company strategy, overseeing the company’s finances and managing the day to day operations at Funding Circle. Samir has worked extensively in the financial services sector. Before founding Funding Circle, Samir was an Executive at Olivant, a private equity investor in financial services businesses in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Prior to this, Samir was a management consultant at BCG advising a number of major UK and global banks and insurers on strategy, new product initiatives, and operational efficiency.
James Meekings, CMO and Co-Founder
James is responsible for marketing and customer experience at Funding Circle. James has an extensive background in the consumer and media space. Prior to co-founding Funding Circle, James was a Senior Consultant at OC&C Strategy Consultants where he advised leading multi-national and national companies on strategy, new products and efficiency programmes.
Andrew Mullinger, COO and Co-Founder
Andrew is responsible for risk management and compliance, having worked extensively in this area previously. Andrew has worked at major investment banks Nomura and Citigroup. Also a consultant at Ernst & Young where he advised financial institutions, Government and regulators on risk management and regulation; including a major UK bank on its SME credit models. Andrew heads up an underwriting team with extensive experience in small business loan assessment
Andy Mendelsohn, CTO
Andy is responsible for the Technological direction of the company. Andy is a veteran technologist and a strong proponent of Agile software development with over 25 years experience. His many roles include IT Director and founder of On-line Telephone Surveys (later MORI MTS), MD and founder of Illuminet, VP of Software for Knowledge Networks, and Founder/CTO of nHabit. He Has worked as a technology consultant for many companies including SportingBet, Mobile Interactive, OPM and Net-a-porter.
Meet our board
Andrew Learoyd, Non Executive Director
Andrew 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. Andrew is currently Chairman of Healthy Kids (trading as Little Dish in healthy food products for children) and Small World Group (a leading money transfer business in Europe).
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.
Edward 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 last October, 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.
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