Virgin Money
In 2003, Virgin Money launched its first venture outside of the UK by introducing its credit cards in Australia. Virgin Money Australia is partly owned by Macquarie Bank Pty Ltd[1] and has added home loans (2006) and superannuation (2005) to their product suite. In 2007 they branched out of only selling products in direct channels, by launching a team of self-employed contractors selling their products 'face to face'. In 2008 they plan to launch personal loans.
In 2006, Virgin Money South Africa launched with a credit card initially in a partnership with ABSA.
In 2007, Virgin Money launched in the USA after the Virgin Group made a majority stake investment in CircleLending [2]. CircleLending was founded by US entrepreneur Asheesh Advani in May 2000[3][4][5], launched in 2001[6] and incorporated in July 2002. At this time, it primarily facilitates peer-to-peer loans similar to Prosper.com, Zopa and Lending Club. However, Virgin Money US focuses on borrowers and lenders who already have an existing relationship (such as friends or family) unlike its competitors in the P2P lending business.
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Northern Rock bid
On 13 October 2007, Sir Richard Branson announced that Virgin Group were putting together a consortium of financers to propose to plough millions into the troubled Northern Rock bank and in return take approx a 30% stake in the business, bringing the current financial products offered by Virgin and combining them with Northern Rock's own financial products.[7] By February 2008, Virgin were the favoured bidders for the bank and announced in it's official submission to the government that, if successful, they would have merged the Northern Rock and Virgin Money, naming the new company "Virgin Bank".[8] The bid was not successful.
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References
- ^ Macquarie Bank takes stake in Virgin Money, Macquarie, 8 November 2005
- ^ CircleLending Becomes Virgin Money USA; Gets Makeover and Millions in Funding, October 16 2007, Tech Crunch
- ^ Virgin Money USA, BusinessWeek
- ^ 'Thanks For The Mortgage Dad' Start-up - CircleLending Funded by Intel/Omidyar, The Alarm Clock
- ^ Asheesh Advani: Startup Financing, Entrepreneur.com
- ^ CircleLending secures $10 million in series B financing to accelerate growth, Intel
- ^ Virgin-led Consortium submits proposal to Northern Rock plc, Virgin Money
- ^ Virgin Consortium Submits Formal Proposal, Virgin Money
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External links
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