LendingCrowd secures £2m of institutional funding

LENDINGCROWD has secured external funding of £2m that will help ramp up its sales and marketing activities.

The peer-to-peer business lender said on Wednesday that the funding round had come from previous backers in angel syndicate Equity Gap, the Scottish Investment Bank and other private investors.

It represents the biggest single investment from Equity Gap.

“We are extremely pleased that our syndicate members once again backed LendingCrowd,” Jock Millican, director at Equity Gap said.

“Existing and new investors in LendingCrowd recognise the progress to date and the potential for the business to scale.”

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As part of its drive to build market position, LendingCrowd this month launched its debut television advert, designed to bring the opportunities available through P2P lending to a wider audience.

The advert features Geoff, who decided to “think outside the bank” and invest with the platform after becoming disillusioned with the low rates of return on other investments.

Stuart Lunn (pictured), chief executive and co-founder of LendingCrowd, said the platform would seek to double its loanbook to £40m this year and would seek further institutional funding over the next 12 months.

“Having laid solid foundations for the business over the last couple of years, we now have a position in the market that is starting to pay dividends,” Lunn said.

“We have a strong pipeline of both investors and demand and with such a strong trajectory, we are now actively speaking to the venture capital and private equity communities about our next phase of growth.”

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