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LendingCrowd
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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LendingCrowd is a British financial technology company that provides business loans to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The company is based in Edinburgh, Scotland and was originally founded as a peer-to-peer lending platform, enabling individual investors to earn interest by pooling their capital with other lenders and funding business loans.
LendingCrowd fully transitioned its business model in 2022 and loans to SMEs are now funded by institutional capital. In 2024, the business announced that it would close the peer-to-peer part of the business.
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Product
Business loans
LendingCrowd offers unsecured business loans of between £75,000 and £350,000 to limited companies and limited liability partnerships based in Britain, with loan terms of up to 60 months.[1] SME borrowers can make overpayments to reduce the term of the loan. The platform does not charge borrowers a fee for early repayment of the loan.
History
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Founded in January 2014 and launched in October 2014, LendingCrowd is the trading name of Edinburgh Alternative Finance Ltd. The business was founded by CEO Stuart Lunn.[2][3] Since October 2014, the LendingCrowd platform has delivered more than £525 million in loans for over 3,500 SMEs across Britain.[4]
LendingCrowd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), although the business has applied to cancel its authorisation due to its exit from the peer-to-peer industry. In November 2016, the business became one of the first peer-to-peer lenders to move from interim permissions to being fully authorised.[5]
In February 2017, LendingCrowd became one of the first peer-to-peer business lending platforms to provide the Innovative Finance ISA. Only platforms that are fully authorised by the FCA are eligible to offer this product.[6]
In October 2018, LendingCrowd announced the appointment of former Standard Life CEO Sir Sandy Crombie as its chairman.[7]
Scottish Enterprise and NIBC Bank agreed in May 2019 to lend a combined £18.75 million via the LendingCrowd platform to SMEs. This was the second lending deal that LendingCrowd had agreed with Scottish Enterprise, the first being a £2.75 million commitment made in 2016.[8] The May 2019 institutional funding deal started the transformation of the business model.
During the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the British Business Bank (BBB) accredited LendingCrowd to provide loans to SMEs via the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).[9]
In 2022, LendingCrowd was accredited by the BBB to support businesses through the Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS).[10] Peer-to-peer investors were not permitted to participate in CBILS and RLS lending, so LendingCrowd pivoted its business to institutional funding. A £100 million funding line with Barclays Bank and a global investment firm was announced in February 2022.[11]
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Awards
LendingCrowd has won several awards since it launched, including:
- Business to Business Award – The Herald Scottish Digital Business Awards 2015[12]
- Leader of the Year (Stuart Lunn) – Scottish Financial Technology Awards 2019[13]
- Business Lender of the Year and Alternative Finance Provider of the Year – The British Business Awards 2019[14]
- Best P2P Business Lender – Growth Finance Awards 2019[15]
- High Growth Business of the Year – British Chambers of Commerce Awards 2019[16]
- Innovation in Business – Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce Business Awards 2020[17]
- Innovation Through Fintech and Scale Up Digital Technology Business of the Year – ScotlandIS Digital Technology Awards 2020[18]
LendingCrowd has also been featured in the Deloitte UK Technology Fast 50 – a ranking of the 50 fastest-growing technology companies in the UK – in 2019, 2020, 2024 and 2025.[19] In 2025, LendingCrowd featured in the Fast 50 as the ninth fastest growing technology business in the UK[20] and the fastest growing in Scotland.[21]
See also
References
External links
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