A UK online lender to small businesses. Founded in 2010 and listed on the London Stock Exchange, it says it has helped more than 135,000 UK businesses borrow £18 billion.
Funding Circle is a UK company that lends money to small and medium-sized businesses. It is not a bank. Businesses can apply online in about seven minutes and Funding Circle says decisions can come within minutes. Its products include business loans, Flexipay (a flexible credit line) and a cashback business credit card.
It was launched in August 2010 by Samir Desai, James Meekings and Andrew Mullinger, who met at the University of Oxford, and who first discussed the idea in a pub in 2008. It started as a peer-to-peer lender, matching small businesses with people who wanted to lend, and moved fully to institutional lending (lending from large investors) in 2022. In 2012 the UK government lent £20 million to small businesses through its platform. It has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since September 2018. Its registered office is 71 Queen Victoria Street, London EC4V 4AY, and its careers page describes a newly refurbished central London office.
Funding Circle says it is "100% dedicated to small businesses", and wants to help those that are often not given the finance they need to grow. Its own site says it has helped more than 135,000 UK businesses borrow £18 billion, and a 2026 press release says that in 2025 its lending supported 117,000 jobs, which is the company's own estimate. Its chief executive is Lisa Jacobs.
For small businesses, the main products are fast online business loans, the Flexipay credit line, and a cashback business credit card launched in September 2024. It also works with other platforms on embedded finance, where lending is offered inside another company's product.
Funding Circle calls its staff "Circlers". Its careers page describes a high-performing team with "the restless energy of a FinTech start up" and the stability of a public company. In 2025 it launched a "People Pact" with five commitments: backing small businesses, growing fast through ownership, belonging together, building better and being different. It was named in the Sunday Times Best Places to Work 2026 list (announced 22 May 2026, based on employee feedback, in the category for organisations with 250 or more staff), and reports record employee engagement of 74% in 2025, which is its own figure. Working is hybrid-first: most staff spend three days a week in the London office, or two for tech teams. Roles span finance, data, technology, risk and customer teams, and its hiring process has a talent phone screen, a hiring manager video interview and one or two further interviews or tests. Hiring budgets are described as shared transparently. We did not find a published graduate scheme, internship or apprenticeship, so check its careers page.
Website: www.fundingcircle.com
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