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The BBC’s weekly The Boss series profiles a different business leader from around the world. This week we speak to Samir Desai, founder of peer-to-peer lender Funding Circle.<\/b><\/p>\n
Friends often share money-making ideas over a few drinks in a pub, but it is not often that the scheme in question ends up creating a billion pound business.<\/p>\n
But that is ultimately what happened after Samir Desai first discussed his big vision with two old university mates when they met up for a few pints in a bar in central London in 2008.<\/p>\n
At the time the UK and the rest of the world were still mired in the maelstrom of the global financial crisis. <\/p>\n
As a result, banks had stopped lending to small businesses.<\/p>\n
The situation looked hopeless for small firms, but Samir – then a 26-year-old management consultant – had come up with what he thought was a good idea. He wanted to remove the banks from the equation, and instead allow the companies to more easily borrow funds from elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Specifically he wanted to create an online marketplace where small firms could apply to borrow money from a pool of funds supplied by individuals and other businesses – peer-to-peer lending.<\/p>\n
Samir’s friends from his Oxford University days – James Meekings and Andrew Mullinger – both agreed that it was potentially a great idea for a business, so the three of them decided to research its feasibility.<\/p>\n
In 2009 they quit their jobs and started work on Funding Circle, which then launched in 2010.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, the company became the first lender of its type to float on the London Stock Exchange<\/a>, and is now valued at more than \u00a31.3bn. An impressive figure, albeit down from its initial listing price of \u00a31.5bn with analysts saying the flotation may have overpriced the firm.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n