Wharton Fintech Chats with Sarina Siddhanti of Funding Circle

Jessica Douglass, Wharton MBA 2018, chats with Sarina Siddhanti, Head of Direct Business, Funding Circle US. Funding Circle is a peer-to-peer lending marketplace that allows investors to lend money directly to small and medium-sized businesses. Funding Circle was the first website to use the process of peer-to-peer lending for business funding in the UK, and now operates in the UK, US, Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands. In this exciting podcast, Sarina shares her thoughts on how financial services can be used as a catalyst for small business growth, explains Funding Circle’s business models and her journey at this exciting company, and shares some valuable insights on how to think about working in the Fintech space and finding companies whose “heart is in the right place”.

Sarina graduated from MIT in 2010 with a major in Mathematics and Economics. While at MIT, Sarina pursued her interest in developing economies and microfinance by traveling to Mexico studying how financial services can be used to help small business evolve in emerging economies. Post MIT, Sarina joined Bain to enhance her business toolkit, and then went to HBS, graduating in 2015. At the time of her graduation, she decided to go back to the passion she was pursuing as an undergrad at MIT and joined Funding Circle, attracted by its model and its fashion. At Funding Circle, Sarina has held various roles, ranging from the strategic side to the operations side.