Online lender iwoca has selected Seema Desai as their new Chief Operations Officer (COO). iwoca provides loans of up to £200,000 to small and micro businesses across the UK, Germany, and Poland via its website and through partner integrations using its proprietary Lending API.
Desai joined iwoca in January 2017 as Head of People, developing the company’s organizational capabilities. Prior to joining iwoca, Seema led the development of the Innovative Finance ISA at peer-to-peer lender Zopa as Head of Product.
As COO, Desai is expected to help scale customer service that has helped propel iwoca to become one of the fastest growing business lender in the UK.
Commenting on her new position, Desai said she was proud to be a part of iwoca’s mission to help small business thrive:
“Since I arrived at iwoca two years ago, I’ve seen what a tremendous difference the personal service provided by our expert Customer Success team makes for small business owners, empowering them to get the capital they need to achieve their full potential. There’s still a lot more work to do and I’m thrilled to have my new role in that journey.”
Christoph Rieche, CEO and co-founder, of iwoca said Desai has been working tirelessly for the past 18 months to manage the “hyper growth” they are experiencing.
“She has helped iwoca overcome these hurdles by fostering a mindful and motivated culture that enables the high performance essential for achieving our dream to fund a million small businesses. She’s smart, humble and passionate. As COO, I need her to continue to move mountains to unlock access to finance for small businesses across Europe.”