Funding Circle, a UK-based online lending marketplace backed by e-commerce holding group Rocket Internet, plans to raise £300m ($385m) in an initial public offering, the Financial Times reported today.
The company will list on the London Stock Exchange and private investor Anders Povlsen has committed to purchasing a stake of at least 10% so long as Funding Circle’s valuation does not exceed $2.1bn. The company is targeting a valuation of $1.9bn.
Founded in 2010, Funding Circle operates a peer-to-peer lending marketplace for small businesses to borrow money from investors. The company has processed more than $6.4bn to more than 50,000 companies in the UK, the US, Germany and the Netherlands to date.
Financial services firm New York Mellon has agreed to lend a total of $1bn to Funding Circle clients in the US through its asset management arm, Alcentra.
Proceeds will go towards strengthening the balance sheet and enabling the company to double down on continued growth rather than seeking profitability, including an expansion in existing and new markets. Funding Circle made a $45.4m loss last year on $122m of revenue.
Funding Circle has secured approximately $373m in equity funding to date. The company most recently raised $100m in a round backed by Rocket Internet in January 2017 led by Accel.
The 2017 round featured Index Ventures, Ribbit Capital, Union Square Ventures, Baillie Gifford, Sands Capital Ventures, DST Global and Singaporean state-owned investment firm Temasek.
Temasek has already backed a $150m series E round in 2015 led by DST Global, with commitments from Baillie Gifford, Sands Capital Ventures and an unnamed fund managed by BlackRock.
Samir Desai, chief executive and co-founder of Funding Circle, said: “At Funding Circle our mission is to build a better financial world.
“By combining cutting-edge technology with our own proprietary credit models and sophisticated data analytics, we deliver a better deal for small businesses and investors around the world.”