LoanTube was born out of frustration with how broken and opaque the UK credit market had become. At the time, borrowing often meant teaser rates, hidden fees and misleading practices that made the process needlessly complex.
Upon its launch in 2019, LoanTube addressed these shortcomings by eliminating teaser rates, ensuring that borrowers receive offers they truly qualify for and providing real-time, pre-qualified loan comparisons that offer complete transparency.
Following its market entry, LoanTube recognised that its customer base largely comprised non-prime consumers who struggled to access credit through mainstream institutions. That’s when we chose to become the champion of the underserved and that mission still drives us today.
Tell us about the business – what it is, what it aims to achieve, who you work with, how you reach customers and so on?
LoanTube is a digital credit marketplace connecting borrowers with a curated panel of over 30 FCA-regulated lenders. We’re here to simplify borrowing by showing actual loan rates and terms upfront – not misleading teaser rates.
At the heart of our mission is supporting non-prime consumers – the millions typically overlooked by traditional lenders – along with small businesses that struggle to access fair credit. Whether you’re new to credit or working to rebuild it, we aim to make responsible borrowing genuinely accessible.
We reach customers through a mix of digital marketing, including Google Ads, social media and affiliate partnerships. Our focus on transparency and doing right by the customer has earned us a 4.9 Trustpilot rating – something we’re genuinely proud of.
How has the business evolved since its launch?
LoanTube formally launched in 2019 with a clear mission: to bring transparency and fairness to a lending industry long plagued by teaser rates, hidden fees and misleading pricing. While Covid slowed the market in 2020, we used that time to strengthen our tech, deepen lender integrations and refine how we qualify borrowers in real time.
Since then, we’ve grown into the UK’s largest credit marketplace focused on non-prime consumers – a segment often ignored by traditional lenders. We’ve expanded our product set beyond personal loans to include business finance, and added extensive data sources to build richer borrower profiles. This helps lenders make more informed decisions and serve a broader range of applicants.
Today, we process over 300,000 applications each month, working exclusively with FCA-regulated lenders to ensure high ethical standards. We’ve bootstrapped our way to profitability, proving that you can scale responsibly while staying true to your mission. And we’re just getting started.
Tell us about the working culture at LoanTube?
LoanTube runs like a high-performance Formula 1 team: lean, focused and built for impact. We’re proudly bootstrapped and globally distributed, with a culture shaped by optimism, grit and a shared mission to fix a broken lending system. Titles and hierarchy don’t matter here, execution does.
We value speed over red tape, ownership over micromanagement, and real results over busywork. If you’re not a fan of endless meetings, love solving real problems and dream of building something that matters, you’ll feel right at home.
Our people are self-starters who move fast, learn faster and thrive in ambiguity. Mistakes happen, what matters is how quickly we adapt. Trust, transparency and respect sit at the core of how we operate, creating an environment where everyone’s ideas count and personal growth is part of the journey.
At LoanTube, it’s always day one – we’re continuously building, improving, and looking ahead.
How are you funded?
LoanTube is proudly bootstrapped. We’ve succeeded in building a business from scratch without external funding, resulting in a sustainable, profitable model – and we’re incredibly proud of that achievement.
In today’s fundraising climate, even the most deep-pocketed investors are rethinking the value of calculated growth. We’ve lived it from day one, staying lean, solving real problems and scaling with intent. Our lack of reliance on external capital has given us the freedom to grow on our own terms, which I’d call highly pragmatic.
And as we broaden our product offering and begin exploring potential avenues for international expansion, we remain open to evaluating strategic funding opportunities that align with our vision, without compromising our core principle to build profitable new products efficiently.
What has been your biggest challenge so far and how have you overcome this?
The biggest challenge has been scaling the business without losing agility or getting bogged down in bureaucracy. Regulation moves slowly, while technology evolves fast. Building a compliant loans marketplace that still delivers a seamless, frictionless user experience has been a constant balancing act.
Bootstrapping the company until we reached profitability was another major test. It forced us to stay lean, be resourceful, and hire great talent who believe in our long-term vision – a marathon, not a sprint. Instead of throwing money at the problem, we focused on building a model that actually works. By executing relentlessly, staying adaptable and challenging outdated industry norms, we’ve overcome these hurdles and set ourselves up for long-term success.
How does LoanTube answer an unmet need?
LoanTube tackles one of the most persistent gaps in the UK credit market: fair and responsible access to unsecured loans for non-prime consumers. This segment is huge (over 30% of working adults) and is not properly served by mainstream lenders, largely because traditional credit models overlook the financial realities of these consumers. Thin credit files, income volatility or past financial missteps often lead to outright rejection, with little transparency or opportunity for course correction.
We believe everyone deserves fair access to fair credit. LoanTube delivers this not by lowering standards, but by assessing each case on its own merit rather than relying on broad assumptions. Within seconds, our platform assesses each borrower’s unique profile across numerous criteria and matches them with relevant FCA-regulated lenders from our panel.
Beyond our core offering, we’re in the process of building new products that further extend long-term financial inclusion, giving individuals the tools, insights and real-rate visibility they need to improve their financial health and unlock better credit opportunities over time.
What’s in store for the future?
Looking ahead, we’re focused on delivering innovations that push financial inclusion further, move the lending industry forward and reinforcing our zero-tolerance stance on misleading financial practices. We’re continuously expanding the reach of our credit marketplace, both on the demand and supply side, while enhancing our AI-driven matching engine and introducing new lending verticals to serve a broader range of customers.
In the longer term, we aim to lead in credit education by empowering people to make smarter financial decisions. Our focus will be on embedding finance into as many everyday platforms as possible, while not reinventing the wheel; making borrowing more transparent, intelligent and accessible.
What one piece of advice would you give other founders or future founders?
This may sound obvious, but it’s worth repeating: execution beats ideas. A great idea is just the starting point. The real challenge, and where the outcome is ultimately decided, lies in how you bring it to life. Plenty of brilliant ideas go nowhere because they’re not executed well.
Also, bootstrap if you can – for as long as you can. It forces you to build something real and sustainable, rather than chasing growth fuelled by external capital.
Remember, building a business is a marathon, not a sprint. It takes time, resilience and relentless focus. Expect setbacks, learn from mistakes and stay committed to the long-term vision.
There’s no single routine or method that works for everyone. What matters is finding a rhythm that works for you, and sticking to it with some level of consistency over the mid to long term. Personally, I structure my day to balance deep work, decision-making and recovery.
A core principle I stick to is anticipated prioritisation. I cut the fluff and focus on what actually moves the needle. I also lean into discomfort, knowing that real growth comes from pushing boundaries. It’s about making constant progress, personally and professionally, while creating space to recharge and reflect.
Above all, believe in and stay connected to what you’re building – in our case, a mission deeply rooted in social impact. That belief isn’t just what carries us through the tough days; it’s the driving force behind everything we’ve achieved so far. Our success is fully tied to our ability to deliver meaningful outcomes with real social impact.
Aymeric Monod-Gayraud, co-founder at LoanTube.
