09 September 2021
THIS ANNOUNCEMENT INCLUDES INSIDE INFORMATION AS DEFINED IN ARTICLE 7 OF THE MARKET ABUSE REGULATION NO. 596/2014
Lisa Jacobs to succeed Samir Desai as CEO from January 1st 2022
Samir Desai to take on new role as Non-Executive Director
Funding Circle announces that Lisa Jacobs, Managing Director of Funding Circle UK, is to succeed Samir Desai CBE as Chief Executive Officer from January 1st 2022. After 12 years as CEO, Samir has decided to step back from day-to-day activities at the end of this year and transition to a new role as Non-Executive Director.
Lisa Jacobs joined Funding Circle in September 2012 as Chief Strategy Officer and is currently Managing Director of Funding Circle's UK business. Prior to joining Funding Circle, Lisa was a financial services consultant at the Boston Consulting Group.
Today's announcement follows a record H1 2021 for Funding Circle with total income of £120.6m, AEBITDA of £53.3m, and operating profit of £35.5m.
Lisa has been a key part of the business for over 9 years. She has done an exceptional job leading our U.K. business and we are delighted she will take on the CEO role.
On behalf of everyone who works at Funding Circle, I also want to recognise Samir Desai's achievement. I have had the pleasure of knowing him since the early days of the business and have seen how his passion and vision have helped build Funding Circle into a highly innovative company transforming the borrowing experience for thousands of small businesses. We are all delighted that Samir will continue on the Board and contribute to the company he created.
Andrew Learoyd
Chair of Funding Circle
Funding Circle is in the strongest position it has ever been so after 12 years as CEO I have decided that now is the right time to step back from running the company and transition to a role on the Board. I am delighted that Lisa will be our next CEO. I have worked closely with her for the last 9 years and she will lead Funding Circle to the next level.
As a founder, member of the Board and shareholder, I remain fully committed to Funding Circle. I'm incredibly excited about our future growth opportunities and I am looking forward to supporting Lisa and the team in my new role.
Samir Desai
Funding Circle is an exceptional business. Since launching, we have helped more than 120,000 businesses access £13 billion. This has a huge societal impact - in 2020 alone the lending through our platform contributed more than £10 billion to GDP and created and sustained 135,000 jobs.
I feel privileged to have been asked to lead Funding Circle as its new CEO. We have achieved a great deal as a company so far, but the best is yet to come. Our machine learning and technology platform is transforming the small business borrowing experience and our new payment products, like FlexiPay, represent the next step in our mission to solve more funding problems for small businesses.
Lisa Jacobs
There is no additional information which is required to be disclosed under rule 9.6.13 of the Listing Rules of the UK Listing Authority.
Enquiries:
Investor Relations
David de Koning - Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Affairs (0203 927 3893)
Media
Natasha Jones - Director of Communications (07956 057161)
Mike Smith / Stephen Malthouse (020 3805 4822)
About Funding Circle:
Funding Circle (LSE: FCH) is a small and medium enterprise ("SME") loans platform. Since launching in 2010, investors and lenders across Funding Circle's geographies - including retail investors, banks, specialty finance companies, asset management companies, insurance companies, government-backed entities and funds - have lent approximately £13 billion to c.120,000 businesses globally.