Brexit Terrified This CEO. Then Business Jumped 50%

Samir Desai doesn't know why business is booming, but his Funding Circle has been on a tear.

Photographs of Funding Circle employees on a wall at the company’s headquarters
Photographs of Funding Circle employees on a wall at the company’s headquarters

Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

At sunrise on June 24, Samir Desai rushed to his offices near St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Britain had just voted to quit the European Union and he knew his staff at peer-to-peer lender Funding Circle Ltd. would be freaking out.

As the pound tumbled and the government quaked following the resignation of Prime Minister David Cameron, Desai walked the floor of Funding Circle’s whiteboard-decked offices, fielding anxious questions. The non-British EU citizens feared they’d have to leave the country. The sales team feared that investors funding the firm’s loans to small businesses would bail.