Virgin Money US (formerly CircleLending) was a peer-to-peer loans and loan-servicing company which was for a short time part of

Virgin Money Virgin Money is a financial services brand used by two independent brand-licensees worldwide from the Virgin Group. Virgin Money branded services are currently available in Australia and the United Kingdom. The brand formerly operated in South A ...

History

Foundation

CircleLending was founded in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

in May 2000 by Asheesh Advani and launched in 2001. The company was then incorporated as CircleLending, Inc. in July 2002. In 2005 the company moved to

Waltham, Massachusetts Waltham ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, and was an early center for the labor movement as well as a major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, ...

. In 2006, the company received venture capital from

Venrock Associates Venrock (portmanteau of Venture and Rockefeller) is a venture capital firm formed in 1969 to build upon the successful investing activities of the Rockefeller family that began in the late 1930s. It has offices in Palo Alto, California, New York ...

Bezos Expeditions Bezos Expeditions is an American investment firm based in Mercer Island, Washington. It serves as a family office for Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos by managing his personal investments. The firm invests in early stage ventures, late stage ventu ...

and

Omidyar Network Omidyar Network is a self-styled " philanthropic investment firm," composed of a foundation and an impact investment firm. Established in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam, Omidyar Network has committed over $1.5billion to ...

totalling $10 million.

Acquisition by Virgin

In 2007, the

Virgin Group Virgin Group Ltd. is a British multinational venture capital conglomerate founded by Richard Branson and Nik Powell in February 1970. Virgin Group's date of incorporation is listed as 1989 by the Companies House, who class it as a holding co ...

acquired a majority-stake in the company and renamed it Virgin Money Holdings USA Inc., the American division of

. Virgin Money US focused solely on formalizing and servicing loans between friends and family, a business model which differentiated it from later social lending and

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by cro ...

businesses which encouraged loans between strangers. In 2008 the company bought Lendia, and renamed it Virgin Money USA Inc., but sold it back to its founder, Greg O'Connor, the following year. O'Connor's company, formerly Lendia, continues to operate as Clearpoint Funding, Inc.

Closure and legacy

Founder Advani left the company in 2009. In 2010, during the

financial crisis of 2007–2010 Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fi ...

, Virgin Money began its withdrawal from the US market. Virgin Money US withdrew from the US market entirely in November 2010. Servicing of its social loans was transferred to its servicing partner, Graystone Solutions, who continue to service the social loans under their own brand. In 2010 a former Virgin Money US employee launched a new venture, National Family Mortgage, to address the intrafamily real estate loan void created by Virgin's departure.

References

{{Peer-to-peer lending companies Virgin Money Peer-to-peer lending companies Financial services companies established in 2000 Companies based in Massachusetts