Folk2Folk has appointed Joanna Chan as head of strategic capital to strengthen its focus on institutional funding.
In the newly-created role, Chan will be responsible for expanding the peer-to-peer business lending platform’s institutional funding relationships and commercial partnerships to support the growth of secured lending to regional SMEs.
Since joining the company in 2025, chief executive Kawai Chung has increased its emphasis on diversifying funding sources.
Chan moves into her new role from her previous position as head of portfolio, in which she oversaw Folk2Folk’s SME loan book and led its post-completion and recoveries teams.
She joined Folk2Folk in 2019 and, since then, has served on the company’s senior management team, credit committee, and risk and audit committee.
Chan previously worked at BNP Paribas in London and Hong Kong, specialising in credit strategy and trading across sovereign, corporate and high-yield markets.
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“Broadening our funding base through institutional partnerships is a core part of our evolution. Joanna will ensure we have the right structures, reporting and relationships to deploy capital into the real economy,” said Chung.
“Her experience in credit markets and institutional relationships makes her ideally placed to lead our strategic capital initiatives as we continue to grow the business and expand our engagement with the wider investment community.”
Chan added: “Folk2Folk has delivered over a decade of disciplined, property-secured lending and proven investor outcomes. My focus is to develop partnerships with institutional funders and like-minded originators to help scale that success, while preserving the clarity and human approach that underpins how we work.”
Since its inception in 2013, Folk2Folk has facilitated more than £810m of loans to UK SMEs.
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