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The UK-based P2P lending platform Funding Circle has just raised $150 million and has joined the billion dollar valuation club. The company plans to expand to regions beyond the UK and the US.
Launched in 2010, Funding circle has over 40,000 investors ranging from individuals to the government of the United Kingdom.
The company also announced a few key hires:
David Yu, formerly the CEO and CTO of online betting business Betfair, is now the company's chief product officer. Chitra Nayak, previously COO of Salesforce’s Platform business, is now the U.S. COO.
“We are delighted to support Samir and the team at Funding Circle as they continue to grow and deliver value to both sides of their marketplace,” said Yuri Milner, founder of DST Global in a statement. DST has backed a wide range of other huge Internet companies and those that look like they are on their way to being huge. Recent other investments include Slack, Ola and Farfetch (enterprise collaboration, transport, and fashion respectively). Further back, it also invested in Twitter, Airbnb, Spotify and Facebook. While the company’s valuation vaults it into the so-called “unicorn” club, it’s about to pass another billion landmark: Funding Circle is on target to loan out $1 billion on its platform this calendar year.
