What’s your company’s mission statement?

Darwinex returns financial markets to people.

We pair talented investment managers with savvy investors, P2P, without most traditional intermediaries.

Our vision for the future is one where EVERYONE, regardless of wealth or financial expertise, has access to the best available investment opportunities.

Where are you headquartered?

We operate out of London (UK) and Madrid (Spain). As an FCA (UK) regulated broker and asset manager, our management operates out of Level39 in London.

However, we have access to plentiful and talented engineering talent in Madrid, so our development team remains Madrid based.

Actually, we’re happy to tap into London’s vibrant Fintech scene, whilst keeping our cost base manageable by tapping into less crowded talent markets…

Who do you think will be the most influential figures (or companies) in FinTech, in 2015?

I expect the ongoing disruption to traditional financial services to accelerate.

The payments space is close to reaching mainstream, with notable players on the foreign exchange niche paving the way for more disruption, even if I’m not 100% certain that they have sustainable “moat”.

Personally, I see investment management is the next (sustainable) big thing. Wealthfront (US), Nutmeg (UK) are disrupting cozy markets to benefit passive investors, and there’s no turning back there. We for our part, aim to conquer P2P asset management 🙂

What kind of year do you foresee for your company, and the industry as a whole?

2015-2017 will be volatile years. We’re in an era of shifting geo-political balance, and an ongoing currency war. Financial markets are going to pose the kind of challenges were stars shine, and laggards founder.

I expect our best customers to do just fine out of that volatility… they’re already clocking stellar risk adjusted returns!

What are your key targets for 2015?

Our core target is to accelerate our current growth rate of 10%+ month on month revenue growth, by admitting customers into our flagship P2P asset management platform. This will pose the kind of technological and organizational challenges that we thrive on.

Further, once our technology and growth consolidates, we will ideally welcome our first institutional investment: it’s time for a regulated and technology intensive business like ours to move on from Seed Funding.

What will be the most important opportunities for FinTech in 2015?

I’m way too deep in my own challenges to look beyond my turf.

However, I honestly think the winners in the payment scene are known, but investment management is still uncharted territory.

What are the key hurdles for growing your business this year?

Our internal challenges will be our organization and technology coping with growth.

I see further regulation coming our way, but regard that as one more defendable barrier to entry vs. newcomers.

What are your thoughts on the current state of FinTech?

The best is always ahead of us!

(image credit: Darwinex)

The Peer-to-Peer Finance Association is a UK trade body that maintains Rules and Operating Principles that must be followed by all Member organisations to protect the interests of all their consumer and small business customers. The P2PFA publishes quarterly figures showing industry data and the cumulative lending. On April 1 2014, peer-to-peer lending became regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

The member data suggests that cumulative lending in Q3 2014 was £ 1,824,541,275, and in Q4 2014 was £ 2,184,116,938. While the number of lenders increased from 106,902 to 114,697, number of borrowers increased from 116,842 to 139,749 in the last quarter.

The P2PFA’s current membership includes Funding Circle, RateSetter, Zopa, ThinCats, LendInvest, Madiston LendLoanInvest, MarketInvoice, Lending Works and Landbay.

P2P financing arrangement is being promoted by the UK Government as an alternative to bank lending. Banks are being urged to pass on loans they are unwilling to bet on alternative lenders.

Christine Farnish, Chair of the P2PFA, said “These figures demonstrate the growing impact peer-to-peer lending is having on the market. Last year showed continued and solid growth in the consumer market and a significant increase in lending flow to businesses. Invoice finance and peer-to-peer finance within the property market are also growing.

She added, “2015 will be another important year for our industry.” The Government has agreed that peer-to-peer lending should become part of the ISA tax-wrapper, a decision P2P warmly welcomes.

“Our strong view is that Government should establish a new ‘Lending ISA’ category to enable consumers to understand the difference between peer-to-peer lending, cash savings and stocks and shares investments.” she said.

(image credit: Simon Cunningham)