The Background
From its launch in 2010 until 2014, over $500 million was lent to more than 5,000 companies through the Funding Circle platform. For this short period, the company saw exponential growth and was recognized as one of the top innovative and game-changing businesses in the Financial Technology sector by the FinTech City. At this point in late 2014, Funding Circle encountered the need to grow the size of its technology team to continue to deliver outstanding peer-to-peer lending services and further develop its platform capabilities.
The Challenge
To do that with the necessary velocity and efficiency, Funding Circle chose Sofia as a location for their new R&D division and trusted Pwrteams to help them lay its foundations. The initial agreement was to set up a compact team of Ruby Engineers that would extend Funding Circle’s development capacity. After an intensive recruitment campaign at the beginning of 2015, the first team members were onboarded and integrated into the Funding Circle’s technology division. They formed the core of the Bulgarian team that later turned out to be crucial for the further development of the local R&D division.
In a few years, the Funding Circle team at Pwrteams grew steadily, evolving to an autonomous unit with several engineering squads (Ruby, Clojure and PHP) and a technical support one. Pwrteams’ role in this process was to execute the initial and all of the following recruitment campaigns, facilitate onboarding new team members, and provide ongoing support for the local team with high-quality HR and facility management services.
The Results
To date, Funding Circle’s team at Pwrteams accounts for almost 30 Software Engineers and Technical Support professionals that are tasked with crucial development projects for the business. The Sofia unit is highly productive and enjoys a great retention rate, with the majority of the initial team members still working in it. The success of the Funding Circle’s team in Sofia is due to a mindful talent selection throughout the recruitment process, followed by a careful onboarding and integration strategy and constant HR care that supports the team at a domestic level. All of this results in a very strong team culture and high levels of efficiency and productivity.
Scaling tech teams with Pwrteams
Funding Circle’s decision to adopt Pwrteams’ nearshoring strategy proved to be a game-changer in terms of innovation and scalability. With the ability to onboard experienced Ruby and Clojure developers quickly, Funding Circle built an efficient R&D division that was deeply integrated into their operations. This nearshore model ensured compliance with strict fintech regulations while enabling rapid iteration on their lending platform, leading to faster loan approvals and improved customer experience.
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