Shared Funding: Making both investing and fundraising easier
Samir Desai, Co-founder and Director, Funding Circle
- Funding Circle is an online platform that connects businesses with investors. With £31mn lent so far, the business is growing quickly. Here one of the firm’s founders explains why it is so popular.

Innovative Routes to Funding

Key points

There is no typical business that uses Funding Circle: Manufacturers, retail firms, newsagents, pharmaceutical firms and even a jet pack maker have borrowed through the platform.
Defaults are unavoidable and are bound to occur with any lender. Transparency about the levels of defaults encourages trust in Funding Circle.
Operating online and allowing business to engage directly with their credit assessors speeds up the fundraising process dramatically, and this speed is one reason why Funding Circle is becoming so popular.
The average investment through the platform is around £5,000, so it is not just an option for high net worth individuals. Businesses are starting to become interested in lending through this platform too, as a way to directly lend to other businesses.
Unlike banks, Funding Circle has a single objective; getting businesses set up with suitable funding. this focusses the business on streamlining and speeding up the fundraising process.

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