Funding Circle co-founder raises £22.5m for new fintech
Samir Desai, one of the founders of former peer-to-peer lending giant Funding Circle, has secured £22.5m to launch a new fintech venture.
Desai (pictured), is set to launch Super Payments as early as next month, trading as ‘Super’.
The fintech app aims to eliminate online payment fees for businesses and shoppers by offering free payments to businesses when they use the service to sell via their own channels.
Super’s app will collate offers from these business, marketing them directly to consumers. Super will then take a commission from any sales made through its app.
“It’s almost a no-win, no-fee model,” Desai told The Times. “Even if [businesses] get no sales [from us], they still benefit from free payments.”
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The company’s backers include Accel – an American venture capital firm which was an early investor in Facebook. Local Globe and Union Ventures also participated in the funding round.
Desai added that Super will compete with digital advertising giants such as Google and Facebook, as well as established payments providers such as PayPal.
Desai launched Funding Circle in 2010 as chief executive, and he took the company public in 2018. Following the Covid-19 pandemic, Funding Circle opted to close its retail P2P lending business in order to focus on government-backed lending schemes. It has since rebranded itself as a small business lender.
At the end of 2021, Desai stepped down as chief executive of Funding Circle.
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