Giles Andrews OBE is co-founder and chairman of Zopa, the world’s first P2P lending business. Zopa is shaping the future of consumer finance by providing better value and service and has now made over £2.5bn of loans in the UK, with over £800m lent in the last 12 months alone. It has won numerous FinTech and banking awards, many for the quality of its service, and is now planning to launch a next generation bank to extend its range of investment and borrowing products.
Giles previously co-founded Caverdale in 1992, which he took from start-up to a £250m revenue motor retailer and sold in 1997. He then ran his own strategic consultancy business with large clients in the general retail and financial services sectors. He co-founded Zopa in 2004 and was CEO from 2007 to 2015, during which time lending volumes grew sixty-fold.
Giles is also chairman of Bethnal Green Ventures, the investor in start-ups using technology to make social or environmental impact, and MarketInvoice, the FinTech platform where businesses have sold invoices to investors to raise over £1bn in working capital.
Giles received a Master’s degree in Experimental Psychology from Christ Church at Oxford University and his MBA from INSEAD. He was awarded an OBE in 2016 for services to financial services and was named FinTech leader of the year in the 2016 FinTech innovation awards.