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Wonga

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Based in
London, England, United Kingdom
Credit, Finance, Financial Services, FinTech, Risk Management
B2C
Wonga is an online payday lender that offers short-term personal cash loans to UK consumers.
Made Acquisitions
-

Dates

Launch
1 December 2006
Closure
1 August 2018
Duration (months)
11 years, 8 months

Failure

Reason
After admitting its algorithmic technology had been lending money to people who couldn’t pay it back, Wonga agreed to write off the loans of 330,000 customers, as well as waive the interest and fees for an additional 45,000. The company was also censured by the FCA for sending fake lawyers’ letters to customers in arrears, which led to the company being forced to pay out a further £2.6 million in compensation.
Submitted Failure Story
Failure categories
Poor product

Founders and team

Investment

Number of investors
8
Investors
Accel, Oak Investment Partners, Balderton Capital, Meritech Capital Partners, LocalGlobe, 83North, Wellcome Trust, Dawn Capital
Accelerator program
-
Acquisition status
Wonga acquired BillPay
Acquisition date
18 October 2013
Employee count
501-1000
Founders
Errol Damelin, Jonty Hurwitz
Founders Twitter 

Funding

Total funding
$158,500,000
Number of funding rounds
5
Funding round(s) amount(s)
Venture - Series Unknown - £10,000,000, Series B - $22,250,000, Series A - $6,000,000, Seed - unknown amount, Series C - £73,000,000
Last funding 
$158,500,000
Last funding date
5 August 2018
Last funding type
Venture - Series Unknown
Funding Status
Venture - Series Unknown

Online

LinkedIn
Twitter
Website
Public synopsis
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