Funding Circle floats at £1.5bn valuation

The company has raised £300m in a landmark listing on the London Stock Exchange.

Funding Circle has completed its Initial Public Offering.

After narrowing its price range earlier this week to 440-460 pence per share, the peer-to-peer lending business has now completed its listing, raising £300m at a valuation of £1.5bn.

Samir Desai (pictured, middle), co-founder and CEO of Funding Circle, said in a statement: “We have always believed Funding Circle would be well-suited to the public markets and today’s listing 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. I am pleased to welcome our new shareholders and I would like to thank my fellow Circlers for all their hard work since we launched. Funding Circle is a very ambitious company and we are excited to continue growing our business over the coming years. The UK is a great place to start and grow a fintech business and we are proud to have listed on London Stock Exchange today.”

Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen had agreed to buy 10 per cent of the issued shares at a maximum valuation of £1.65bn.

Funding Circle’s leadership team and board members (including its venture backers) will now be locked-in for a period of 365 days, having had the chance to sell a quarter of their shares, or nothing, as part of the offer. All eyes will now be on the performance of the company's shares. A success-story could tee up a long line of UK fintech IPOs, with names such as RateSetter, Zopa and LendInvest often mentioned in relation to going public. 

Dr Robert Barnes, global head of primary markets and CEO of Turquoise, London Stock Exchange Group, said in a statement: “We congratulate Funding Circle on its successful IPO. We have watched with great interest the development of the fintech industry over the last decade. Funding Circle’s IPO today further confirms London as a leading international financial centre for raising capital for global fintech businesses.”

“Sitting at the heart of UK’s financial ecosystem, London Stock Exchange is the natural funding partner to a sector that is reshaping the global financial services landscape. We are proud to support these businesses throughout their growth journeys, offering them access to deep liquid pools of international investor capital for the long-term.”