Funding Circle Appoints Steve Allocca U.S. Managing Director

Funding Circle, the leading online lending platform for small business borrowers today announces Steve Allocca has joined the company as U.S. Managing Director.

Steve, a former BlueVine, Lending Club, and PayPal executive, will lead Funding Circle U.S. through its next exciting and ambitious phase of growth and expansion. Reporting to Chief Executive Officer Lisa Jacobs, Steve will play a crucial role in honing in on the meaningful opportunity that exists to serve more small business borrowers in the U.S.

"I am excited to begin the new year by joining Funding Circle, which has built a reputation over the last decade as a market leader in responsible lending practices, product innovation and attractive returns for investors," Allocca said. "I am looking forward to working with the team to propel the U.S. business to new heights and help expand access to capital to more small businesses."

Most recently, Steve was Chief Operating Officer at BlueVine, a small business banking provider in the U.S. He previously served as President of LendingClub, where he grew revenue, transformed the organisation, and expanded its product set. Before that, Steve led PayPal's multi-billion-dollar credit business, PayPal Credit, where he launched and scaled small business lending, which soon became one of PayPal's fastest-growing and most valuable businesses. Steve also held a number of senior leadership positions at Wells Fargo.

Lisa Jacobs, CEO at Funding Circle said: "I'm pleased to kick start 2023 by welcoming Steve Allocca as our new U.S. Managing Director. He brings a wealth of fintech experience and is passionate about helping small businesses get the funding they need to win. There is a huge opportunity in the U.S. market to serve more businesses than we do today."

Funding Circle is now operational in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. In 2022, the Company expanded its core loan proposition in the U.S. to serve super-prime businesses and launched two Lending-as-a-Service (LaaS) partnerships with Pitney Bowes and DreamSpring. The Philadelphia Federal Reserve and Bank for International Settlements also released a study concluding Funding Circle is "increasing access to capital at a lower cost for borrowers who are less likely to receive credit from traditional banks"... and "predicting future loan performance more accurately than the conventional method to credit scoring, leading to better loan performance."

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For more information and enquiries

Funding Circle Investor Relations:

Morten Singleton at [email protected] (tel:+44 7736 297 929)

Funding Circle Media Relations:

Abigail Whittaker at [email protected] (tel:+44 7989 876 136)

About Funding Circle

Funding Circle (LSE: FCH) is a lending platform for small business borrowers. Established in the UK in 2010, and now the leading lending platform to SMEs, the Group also has a material and growing presence in the U.S. Globally, Funding Circle has provided £14.5bn in loans to c.130,000 businesses.

For small business borrowers, Funding Circle provides a leading-edge customer experience, delivered through its technology, machine learning, and data science, coupled with a human touch. Its solutions continue to help customers access the funding they need to succeed. For lending investors, Funding Circle provides access to an alternative asset class in an underserved market, and delivers robust and attractive returns.