Funding Circle founder Desai wins Accel backing for Super Payments venture | Business News

A co-founder of Funding Circle, one of Britain’s financial technology pioneers, has raised tens of millions of dollars from blue-chip investors to establish a payments start-up that he hopes will disrupt the industry behemoths Visa and MasterCard.

Sky News has learnt that Samir Desai has secured backing from Silicon Valley heavyweights including Accel Partners, one of the early backers of Facebook, to fund the development and launch of Super Payments.

Little is known about the business model of Mr Desai’s latest venture, but one source said on Wednesday that it would be aimed at taking market share from the payments industry’s biggest names.

Local Globe and Union Square Ventures, two other big names in the venture capital arena, have also agreed to become shareholders in Super Payments, according to the source.

The funding was raised by Mr Desai at a pre-money valuation of $60m, a substantial figure for a pre-revenue business which has yet to be launched, they added.

Mr Desai, who launched Funding Circle in 2010, announced last autumn that he would step down as the company’s chief executive at the end of 2021.

He remains a non-executive director on its board.

The entrepreneur is one of the most prominent figures on the European fintech scene, and is credited with having helped to fuel the development of a peer-to-peer lending model which has nevertheless endured significant challenges in recent years.

Mr Desai continues to own a 4.5% stake in the London-listed company, which floated in 2018, and has no intention of reducing his holding, according to a person close to him.

His stake was worth approximately £13m in Wednesday morning trading.

Super Payments will not compete in any way with Funding Circle, and Mr Desai’s involvement with the new business was approved by the London-listed company’s board.

A spokesperson for Funding Circle said: “The board discussed, and are supportive of, Samir’s desire to explore a new business venture, whilst continuing as a committed long-term shareholder and valued member of Funding Circle’s board.”

The timetable for key milestones at Mr Desai’s new company was unclear on Wednesday.

Globally, the payments sector has been one of the hottest targets for investment from venture capital and private equity firms in recent years, fuelling tens of billions of dollars worth of corporate transactions.

Mr Desai declined to comment further on Super Payments.