At least a dozen times during its advertisement (see below) Funding Circle, which has apparently increased its UK TV advertising recently, emphasizes that “we are not a bank.”
Call it the anti-bank brand strategy.
I guess that’s what you do when you are sitting on $123.2 million of funding from five VC rounds.
Funding Circle is the LendingClub for businesses. Funding Circle was founded in 2009 and most recently received funding from Index Ventures, Ribbit Capital, Union Square Partners and Accel Partners — only Index is headquartered in Europe. That July funding put $65 million into its coffers. The company is lending to companies in the US and UK — at rates of 8.99% to 20.99%.
See the current Funding Circle ad, which was first made public a couple of months ago, below.