Funding Circle Holdings (LSE:FCH) has named Rob Straathof as its next Chief Executive Officer, subject to regulatory approval, the London-listed SME finance platform said on Wednesday.
Straathof will succeed Lisa Jacobs, who announced her intention to step down on 8 September. He spent a decade as CEO of Liberis, growing it from a single-partner UK small business lender into a global embedded finance platform that has provided more than $4bn of funding to over 100,000 small businesses. He is currently CEO of Grover, a European technology subscription platform based in Germany.
Funding Circle provides loans, pay-later options and spending solutions to small and medium-sized enterprises, using AI-driven credit models built on its own technology platform. Since 2010 it has extended £7.9bn in credit to more than 117,000 UK businesses, and says roughly 80% of applicants receive instant credit decisions.
Straathof will join in the first half of 2027, with his exact start date still to be confirmed. Jacobs will continue leading the business until then, handing over no later than September 2027.
Ken Stannard, Funding Circle's chair, pointed to Straathof's "decade scaling Liberis into a multi-product platform" as central to the board's decision, adding that he "shares our conviction that small businesses deserve better access to finance."
Read more about Funding Circle
- 08/09/26Funding Circle CEO Lisa Jacobs to step down by September 2027
- 11/08/26Funding Circle secures up to £500m from Castlelake
- 16/07/26Funding Circle lifts H1 revenue 50% and reiterates full-year guidance
Straathof described Funding Circle as "a profitable, capital-light platform with distinctive strengths in credit and technology", and said the task ahead was "to use technology and data to say yes to more of the UK's small business owners."
Jacobs, who has led the company for part of its 16-year history in SME finance, said she was "really pleased Rob will be taking up the reins to continue our mission."