According to The Times, sources say Funding Circle is in no hurry to do an IPO, but if the markets continue to be favorable they may go public in the second half of the year; article also shares the potential in their US business where they have much less brand awareness compared to the UK; there are some concerns from clients and investors that the company has not yet been through a recession as they look at an IPO; Funding Circle currently has 850 employees and last raised £82 million at a £990 million valuation. Source
Deutsche Bank has shared details of Funding Circle’s fourth securitization which will be their largest to date; it includes 3,030...
Funding Circle’s SME Income Fund has closed a funding deal with Citibank; according to the AltFi, “Under the terms of the agreement Citibank London will provide £50m of funding into the transaction, by entering into a senior, floating rate loan. The fund will contribute a portfolio of existing UK small business loans at par, and in return shall receive ?the approximately £50m of cash to be deployed in accordance with its investment policy, and junior notes.” Source
It has been a long time since OnDeck and LendingClub went public in the US; the shares of both companies are down significantly since that time; now Funding Circle is planning to go public as late autumn, but what is the right valuation for the company? Financial Times reviews Funding Circle’s business and the importance of whether investors value it as a finance or software business. Source
More choice for SMEs looking to borrow and grow.
UK peer-to-peer lender FundingSecure is a pawn broker providing loans against secured assets including jewelry, property, classic cars and fine art; its representative APR for borrowers is 35.4% and it markets interest of 16% annually for investors with a minimum investment of 25 British pounds; with the FCA approval it plans to offer IFISAs in the next two months. Source
PitchBook, the venture capital, private equity and M&A database, released its Global Private Fund Strategies, summarising private capital fundraising activity. ...
Future Finance has received commitment for £30 million from the European Investment Fund (EIF) to lend to master's degree students supported by the Erasmus+ European program; Future Finance is a student lending platform active in the UK and Germany; Erasmus+ subsidizes career skills-driven education for over 300,000 higher education students across the European Union; EIF's commitment involves loan guarantees that will encourage investing and borrowing on Future Finance's platform; it has launched a "Call for Expression of Interest" targeting additional financial institutions that finance master's degree students crossing national borders in the EU. Source
Automation can be a key factor in scale-up success. From start-up to unicorn, investing early makes the difference.
The implementation of GDPR is around the corner as it starts in May across Europe, while most of the regulations will benefit robo advisors the compliance costs could rise significantly; users will be able to ask for all data related to them and all data a rival adviser might have on them, getting this done correctly and efficiently will take time; the customer benefits are high, startups on the other hand might end up getting a lot more costs then anticipated. Source.