LendingCrowd appoints new chief marketing officer

Edinburgh-based fintech lending platform LendingCrowd has appointed Darren Cairns as the company’s new chief marketing officer (CMO).

Mr Cairns joins LendingCrowd’s Edinburgh HQ from financial provider Neyber in London and has spent over 20 years in digital and mobile technology marketing.

Prior to his role at Neyber, he was CMO at fintech lender 4finance, where he helped grow the company’s lending to €1.1bn across 17 countries.

He has also held senior roles at Sony, Yahoo!, 3 and BT.

LendingCrowd is a fintech lender offering small business loans and investment opportunities across an easy-to-use online platform. The platform was launched in 2014 and to date has completed more than 530 loans totalling over £46 million. In October 2018 the company announced the appointment of Sir Sandy Crombie, former CEO of Standard Life and senior independent director at Royal Bank of Scotland, as its new chairman.

Stuart Lunn, founder and chief executive officer at LendingCrowd, said: “We are delighted to welcome Darren to our growing team. His experience and expertise will be a valuable asset as we continue to serve the country’s small and medium sized businesses by building the most exciting fintech lending company here in Scotland. The fintech landscape in Edinburgh has developed exponentially in recent years, so it is no surprise the city is increasingly able to attract the best talent. LendingCrowd is an attractive option for businesses looking for an alternative to the big banks and we are now ideally placed to capitalise on an impressive first four years to grow our market share across the UK.”

Mr Cairns added: “I am excited to be joining such a dynamic company as LendingCrowd. I loved the ambitious plans of Stuart and the LendingCrowd team and I believe with my start-up experience I can help them make this business a real fintech force.”