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Funding Circle planning £300m London IPO

London Funding Circle

P2P lending platform Funding Circle is planning to raise £300m in a London IPO, which could value the company at up to £2bn.

The transaction is being backed by Anders Anders Povlsen, a Danish billionaire who owns stakes in Asos and Numis, a City of London stockbroker. Povlsen has agreed to purchase a shareholding of at least 10%.

Funding Circle provides loans to small business in the US, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK. The company says it’s so far lent £5bn worth of loans.

The money raised will be used to boost the company’s expansion into new markets.

The firm said the listing would help “engender trust” with investors, borrowers and regulators.

Funding Circle was founded in London in August 2010 and has since raised $413.2m (£319.82m) from investors including Accel, Rocket Internet, Index Ventures and Baillie Gifford.

Neil Rimer, partner at Index Ventures and Funding Circle’s board member, said: “Just as banks have become more reluctant lenders, Funding Circle has become an indispensable source of financing for small businesses in the UK, the US and in continental Europe; directly supporting the growth of the most critical engines of the economy.

“It is a prime example of a new breed of financial services companies, who by making their products more transparent and more convenient, have democratised access to valuable services and increased economic activity.

“Funding Circle has a broad impact on the growing businesses it funds, the employees they hire, the communities they operate, their customers and the countries they operate in.

This is an important milestone that will allow the company to support tens of thousands of additional small businesses: something everyone should celebrate.”

Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are acting as advisers for the IPO.

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