The UK’s largest peer-to-peer lending firm Funding Circle has announced plans to foray into Canada in the second half of this year.
With an office in Toronto, the Canadian business will be headed by Tom Eilon, who previously led the commercial strategy for the company in the UK.
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Funding Circle expansion
Funding Circle aims to cater to the Canadian SME industry, which employs 90% of the private sector workforce.
According to the company, small business loans as a percentage of total outstanding lending business dropped to the lowest in ten years in Canada.
The company intends to address this by enabling businesses to connect with investors to mitigate the difficulties associated with business financing.
Funding Circle Canada MD Tom Eilon said: “We have been evaluating options for expansion over the last year. Canada’s stable, growing economy coupled with good access to credit data and progressive regulatory environment made it the obvious choice.
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By GlobalData“The most important factor though was the clear need for additional funding options among Canadian SMEs.
“We are looking forward to officially launching later this year and supporting Canadian SMEs to access the finance they need to grow, create new jobs and fuel their local economies.”
Currently, Funding Circle platform is operational in the UK, the US, Germany and the Netherlands.
Launched in 2010, Funding Circle has since lent more than £5bn. In 2017 alone, the firm lent £1.7bn. In addition, it has taken leaps in expanding to the US and Europe.
In January last year, we reported that Funding Circle is preparing for a £1bn ($1.35bn) listing on the London Stock Exchange.
