Best Startup
At Best Startup UK we track over 130,000 UK startups and over 500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top United Kingdom based Product operating in the Lending space. If you think a Product is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.co.uk.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Companies House UK, Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Ben Chisell
Director of Product of OakNorth
Ben Chisell is Product Director at Starling Bank, a modern mobile-only bank built to help customers gain better insight into their financial lives, and give them access to all of their financial products in one place through the Starling Marketplace. Ben wants to build a bank that truly puts the customer first, and solves meaningful problems that can have a positive impact on their lives.
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About OakNorth: OakNorth is the creator of the ON Credit Intelligence Suite – proven cloud software that transforms commercial lending
Jose Gomes
Head of Digital Product of Proportunity
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About Proportunity: Proportunity is a financial services organisation made possible by technology.
Andrew Lawson
Chief Product Officer of Zopa
Andrew is responsible for Zopa’s overall product strategy and for how our products perform, including customer acquisition, credit risk management, pricing and managing customers through their product journeys. Andrew has over 17 years’ experience in consumer analytics and lending, and prior to joining Zopa in 2014 was an Associate Partner with Oliver Wyman, the international management consulting firm. He has worked with leading consumer facing business across Europe and North America on driving data enabled customer value growth. Andrew started his career at Capital One in the UK.
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About Zopa: Zopa offers peer-to-peer loans with low rates, flexible terms, and no early repayment fees.
Tim Armstrong
Managing Director UK and Product Development of Greensill Capital
Tim Armstrong is a member of Greensill’s European team, focusing on developing partnerships within EMEA. Prior to joining Greensill, Tim worked at KPMG managing a Supply Chain Finance solution for clients which utilised partnerships with leading FinTech companies in combination with KPMG’s suite of advisory services. Prior to that, Tim worked in the corporate finance team in Deloitte, working closely with the UK Government’s Department of Business, and at Morgan Stanley, in their securitisation team.
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About Greensill Capital: Greensill Capital is a provider of structured working capital financing to businesses globally.
Andy Sweeney
Head of Fixed Income Products of Aviation and Tech Capital
Andy graduated from Cambridge University with an MA (Hons) in Law. He has over 16 years of experience in debt capital markets, all gained working in major global investment banks. He began his career at Citigroup with a focus on raising short term finance for companies via the commercial paper market. Subsequently he worked in the bond syndication teams at RBC Capital Markets and Mizuho International, advising banks, governments and corporates on issuing bonds across a range of currencies for periods of anything from one year to fifty years and in sizes ranging into the billions of pounds. He enjoys innovation and has been responsible for several innovative bond transactions, including creating a retail bond for a major UK bank and designing structures to effectively manage interest rate risk for borrowers. One of his roles in banking was to work to create liquid secondary markets for securities and he looks forward to bringing that experience to the peer-to-peer market. Andy understands that investment is about creating a fair transaction for both borrowers and investors.
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About Aviation and Tech Capital: Owner of Ablrate.com an asset backed peer lending platform specialising in capital equipment and the world’s first to offer aircraft loans
Andy Lee
Founder & Chief Product Officer of Sphonic
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About Sphonic: Sphonic is a Context-Broker that leverages 3rd party vendor data with a workflow engine to enable fraud prevention, AML, KYC
Christopher Welch
Head of Product of Brismo
Chris Welch spent nine years in the natural resources space initially as a minerals economist and then as a metals and mining analyst at both global and boutique investment banks. Chris gained a BSc (Hons) in geology from University College London and also holds an advanced certificate in Economics and an MSc in International Business Management.
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About Brismo: Brismo is a provider of lending performance data.
Christopher Welch
Head of Product of Brismo
Chris Welch spent nine years in the natural resources space initially as a minerals economist and then as a metals and mining analyst at both global and boutique investment banks. Chris gained a BSc (Hons) in geology from University College London and also holds an advanced certificate in Economics and an MSc in International Business Management.
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About Brismo: Brismo is a provider of lending performance data.
