“This is an innovative way to provide local businesses the support they need to grow and improve. We want Lambeth to be a borough where businesses can thrive, boosting the local economy and creating more jobs and opportunities for our residents. Funding Circle has been proven to work and I’m excited that we’re signing up to create more choice for business and deliver tangible benefits to Lambeth.”
Lambeth becomes the third London borough to form a partnership of this sort. AltFi has reported on many of the tie-ups involving Funding Circle over the past year or so. This includes partnerships with councils in Rushcliffe, Herefordshire, Glasgow City and Newcastle. These regional council partnerships serve as an intriguing complement to Funding Circle’s strategic alliances within the traditional financial services sector. In June last year the platform announced a reciprocal referrals partnership with Santander and in October they began a similar partnership with PwC. On the subject of their newest link up, Natasha Jones of Funding Circle commented:
"We’re very pleased to have a further London borough council sign up to our Local Business Lending programme. London businesses are some of the hardest working in the UK and deserve fast and fair access to finance to support their growth…we believe this partnership will really help to boost the Lambeth economy."
Forging clever partnerships is a major driver behind Funding Circle’s growth. Undoubtedly this will benefit the small businesses of Lambeth and, rest assured, this will not be Funding Circle's last partnership.
