Fintech lender LendingCrowd appoints marketing chief

LendingCrowd, the Edinburgh-based fintech lender, has named Darren Cairns as its new chief marketing officer.

Darren Cairns: excited to be joining dynamic firm. Picture: Paul Chappells

Cairns joins the firm’s headquarters from financial provider Neyber in London having spent more than 20 years in digital and mobile technology marketing.

Prior to his role at Neyber, Cairns was chief marketing officer at fintech lender 4finance, where he helped grow the company’s lending to almost £1 billion across 17 countries. He has also held senior roles at Sony, Yahoo and BT.

Stuart Lunn, founder and chief executive at LendingCrowd, said: “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.”

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.”

LendingCrowd, which is backed by Equity Gap, the Scottish Investment Bank – the investment arm of Scottish Enterprise – and a number of prominent investors, recently announced the appointment of former Standard Life chief executive Sir Sandy Crombie as its new chairman.