Peer-to-peer (P2P) lender Zopa is reportedly planning another round of fund raising that could see its valuation exceed £500 million, making it one of the UK's highest valued fintech start-up.
According to Sky News, Zopa is currently in talks with JPMorgan about issuing new shares in order to raise around £70 million.
The company has not undgone any significant fundraising since the beginning of 2014. In that time it has seen its annual revenues double to more than £11.5 million in 2014 and this growth is exepcted to continue in 2016. So far it has lent over £1.2 billion, including £500 million in 2015 alone and the company expects lending levels to also double in size.
The P2P lending sector has become hugely popular in the last year and it is estimated that over 200 firms are operating in the UK, many of them outside the full regulatory supervision of the Financial Conduct Authority.
Many P2P lenders are hoping to benefit from UK government reforms to the pension sector that will allow savers to invest certain savings products like ISAs in P2P-based products.