By Daniel Lanyon on Wednesday 3 February 2021
Irish alternative lender Linked Finance’s founder and CEO Niall Dorrian is stepping down after seven years since the firm’s launch in 2013.
Ireland’s largest peer-to-peer lender has appointed a new CEO Niall O’Grady to take over from Niall Dorrian, who is stepping down.
Linked Finance arranges unsecured loans of up to €250,000, and can fund borrowers, it says, in under 24 hours from receiving an application.
Dorrian had led the firm over the past five years and will remain as a non-executive director of the business.
O’Grady says Irish SMEs are facing significant challenges.
“Talking to customers this week, I can see a clear need for the speed and simplicity of our finance offering. It has been great to join a business just as we start to offer the Government’s Covid-19 Credit Guarantee Scheme to our customers. We have seen record levels of interest and we are able to move very quickly to fund great Irish businesses under this important scheme,” he said.
O’Grady was formerly managing director of 123.ie and Director of Distribution of RSA. Before that, he was with Permanent TSB as commercial director.
The Irish government’s launched its flagship Covid-19 Credit Guarantee Scheme at the beginning of January to help SMEs with working capital and capital expenditure loans. Linked Finance says it has so already funded €3m of loans in 2021 through the scheme.
In total it has lent over €143m since 2013.
15 March 2023
Amelia Isaacs