Exclusive: ex-Funding Options CEO joins Starling Bank

By Daniel Lanyon on Tuesday 3 March 2020

Digital Banking

The digital bank, which is currently building out its in-house business lending, has also recently been funding loans on the Zopa platform as it looks to scale its lending operations.

Exclusive: ex-Funding Options CEO joins Starling Bank
Image source: Conrad Ford

Conrad Ford, co-founder and former CEO of Funding Options, has joined Starling Bank in a consultancy role. 

Ford launched Funding Options in 2011 and was CEO for eight years building the small business finance broker and seeing it win £5m in the RBS Competition Remedies fund. He stepped back in September last year, keen to explore new horizons.

According to LinkedIn, Ford is listed as a consultant at Starling Bank since the start of 2020 although details are scarce beyond “Working on some exciting things at Starling Bank”. 

A spokesman for Starling Bank said that Ford was helping the firm build out its SME banking operation which recently hit a milestone of 100,000 business customers. Starling also recently annouced that it would be originating loans in-house of up to £250k for business customers.

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