The award winning online marketplace, Funding Circle, has been inundated with broker enquiries for more information on its lending proposition for small businesses since exhibiting at the NACFB Expo at the NEC Birmingham last week.

Funding Circle, the first ever online loans marketplace and the largest of its kind, brings together savers and investors to sidestep banks and lend directly to small businesses. Since launching in August 2010, more than 15,000 investors have registered and £37 million has been lent to over 850 businesses.

According to Laura McMullen, Head of Sales at Funding Circle, there is a clear demand from brokers for a radical alternative to mainstream lenders, both in terms of funding access and the manner in which service is delivered. With no sign that conventional lenders have either the appetite for lending to small businesses or the inclination to reduce the multiple hurdles they face, brokers were very keen to learn how Funding Circle provides real solutions to the lending shortage, poor service and unacceptable delays typically seen with the banks.

Laura said: “Funding Circle offers a powerful new commercial funding hub, which, from the responses we have had at the NACFB Expo, is exactly what the intermediary market has been calling for. Intermediaries now have an opportunity to generate the funding their clients need, quickly and with the minimum of bureaucratic obstacles.”

She added, “The environment of small business lending has needed a revolution for some time. By bringing together businesses seeking finance, through professional advisers, with investors looking for attractive returns, Funding Circle is driving innovation in the industry. With a business process guaranteed to deliver funding quickly, with the minimum of administrative wrangling, loan applications have soared. Competition for commercial finance has been stagnant for too long. Funding Circle not only provides vital liquidity for small businesses, but an application process light years ahead of the accepted snail paced process employed by traditional lenders.”