Funding Circle, a UK-based peer-to-leer lending platform backed by e-commerce holding company Rocket Internet, went public on Friday in a £440m ($576m) initial public offering in its home country.
The company issued $393m of new shares in the IPO priced at 440p each, at the lower end of their 420p to 530p range, while its shareholders divested approximately $184m of shares. It has not however disclosed details of the selling shareholders or the size of their stakes.
The offering valued Funding Circle at $1.97bn. Heartland, the investment holding vehicle for Anders Holch Povlsen, had agreed to buy an amount of shares as cornerstone investor equating to up to 10% of the company’s overall share capital.
Funding Circle runs a platform where small businesses can access debt financing provided by a pool of some 80,000 investors who provide the capital through an online account. The businesses pay back the money in monthly instalments which are distributed to lenders.
The company had raised about $373m in equity funding since being founded in 2010, most recently securing $100m in a January 2017 round that was led by venture capital firm Accel with backing from Rocket Internet.
Index Ventures, Ribbit Capital, Union Square Ventures, Baillie Gifford, Sands Capital Ventures, DST Global and Temasek also took part in the 2017 round. Funding Circle’s earlier investors include BlackRock.
The company’s shares opened at 460p and are currently trading at approximately 435p each.
Underwriters Merrill Lynch International, Goldman Sachs International, Morgan Stanley International and Numis Securities have the option to purchase a further £44m of shares in the IPO, which could hypothetically increase its size to about $623m.
Samir Desai, Funding Circle’s co-founder and CEO, said: “We have always believed Funding Circle would be well-suited to the public markets and today’s milestone is recognition of the strength and global impact of our model.
“We look forward to starting this exciting new chapter for the business as we focus on growth across all markets and seek to create a better financial world for small businesses and investors.”
