Funding Circle recently appointed a new Managing Director to lead FlexiPay expansion.
Funding Circle, which claims to be one the UK’s largest small business loan platforms, confirmed the appointment of Jerome Fernandez as Managing Director, FlexiPay.
FlexiPay is described as “the first short-term finance product offered by Funding Circle in the UK.”
The product “enables businesses to spread any UK invoice or supplier payment over three months, with the initial payment made upfront on their behalf.”
It gives SMEs greater flexibility “to negotiate with suppliers, deal with unexpected payments and cover ad-hoc business costs.”
Jerome brings over 20 years of experience “in both the fintech and banking sectors, having worked in product and commercial leadership roles with high growth scale-up organisations and established large enterprises.”
Recently, Jerome “built and led Product teams at Remitly and Revolut.” Prior to that, he “held various commercial leadership roles to scale consumer lending products at Sainsbury’s Bank and Citi’s global consumer business.”
Lisa Jacobs, CEO at Funding Circle, says:
“I’m delighted to welcome Jerome to Funding Circle. He brings a wealth of experience in creating credit and finance products that customers love. I’m looking forward to seeing him build FlexiPay into a game-changing product that helps small businesses get the funding and flexibility they need to thrive. We have seen great take up and feedback from existing customers using FlexiPay, and I’m expecting lots more to come.”
Jerome Fernandez, Managing Director, FlexiPay at Funding Circle, says:
“It’s a really exciting time to join Funding Circle as we set about becoming the small business lending platform where our customers can not only borrow, but pay and spend as well. Initial customer feedback about FlexiPay has been really positive so it’s great to be able to build on this and bring the product to more businesses.”
As covered, Funding Circle claims to be the UK’s largest loan platform for SMEs. Founded in 2010, its instant decision lending technology “enables small businesses to apply for finance in an average of six minutes, with lending decisions in as little as nine seconds.”
A wide range of investors are “utilizing this technology and distribution platform to lend c. £14 billion to approximately 120,000 businesses globally.”
This is “providing small businesses with the fast and simple access finance they need to grow and power the economy.”
In 2021, lending through Funding Circle’s UK platform “is estimated to have contributed £7.2bn to GDP and supported 100,000 jobs.”
