Funding Circle
- 🦄Became a unicorn2015
- 📈Peak valuation$2 Billion ’18
- 💔Became a Unitard2019
- 💸Last valuation~$540M
How it happened
Funding Circle built a marketplace connecting small businesses seeking loans with investors willing to fund them, and was one of the most hyped fintechs of the peer-to-peer lending boom. It floated on the London Stock Exchange in September 2018 at a £1.5B valuation, but the shares slid more than 70% within a year as growth slowed, losses mounted and enthusiasm for P2P lending evaporated. Glassdoor reviews from the years after describe a business turning defensive — staff recounted the 2023 decision to sell the US arm, seen as its main growth engine, then redundancy rounds and cost-cutting, with talent leaving even as the company kept touting its culture.
Employee accounts paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor ↗. See our methodology.
Source: TechCrunch / Euromoney / Yahoo Finance (£1.5B IPO Sept 2018, raised £300M; shares -72% by July 2019; market cap fell below total equity invested)
