Your funding partners
The SPRK team has founded, developed and operated businesses in the UK and abroad. We think differently about capital and cash flow because we’ve experienced the pressure and stress that comes with starting and growing a business. That’s why we developed a better way to fund your business, with SPRK.
Dominick Peasley
Chief Executive Officer
Dominick is CEO of SPRK Capital. Prior to joining SPRK he was responsible for all lending capital at Funding Circle, the largest platform lender to small businesses in the UK. He joined pre-IPO to institutionalise their capital base and during his tenure there raised over £5bn of new capital to support SMEs in the UK. Prior to this Dominick worked for Goldman Sachs where he headed distribution for its asset management business in the UK and with global banks. Dominick qualified as a chartered accountant with PwC and is a Fellow of the ICAEW. He holds a Masters in Engineering from Durham University.
Kyp Andronicou
Head of Operations
Kyp has over 12 years’ experience in financial services with a focus on SME lending and FinTech platform operations. He joined from Funding Circle where he was most recently Head of Investor Services for UK & Europe having held positions including Operations Manager for Capital Markets. Prior to this Kyp held similar roles at Goldman Sachs in both Investor Services and Derivative Operations having obtained a first-class degree in Economics.
Jasdeep Hara
Head of Underwriting
Jas has over 20 years of experience in financial services with a focus on SME underwriting. He joined from AskIf (founded by an ex-Funding Circle co-founder) where he was instrumental in designing the underwriting and monitoring policies for their lending operations. Jas held similar roles at Relendex and worked with the founding team of SPRK at Funding Circle where he helped implement their underwriting policies, joining in 2012 as one of the first employees. Prior to this, he held positions at Euler Hermes and ING in commercial underwriting.
Elaine Villamayor
Head of Credit Quality and Monitoring
Elaine has over 20 years of experience in financial services with a focus on SME credit. She joined from Funding Circle where she was Head of Credit Quality, having held a number of senior underwriting roles over her 10 years in the company. Prior to Funding Circle Elaine held senior roles at Euler Hermes and RBS in credit risk and assessment. Elaine holds a degree in Management from London School of Economics.
Ivan Ananjev
Head of Technology Development
Ivan has more than 15 years’ experience in complex software development. He joins from Willis Towers Watson where he led the development team on their Gateway Platform. Prior to this Ivan was one of the early technology development team at Hometrack part of Zoopla, the UK’s leading property search and valuation company.
Maria Padilla
Finance Director
Maria is a finance professional with over 15 years of experience specialising in financial accounting and fintech lending with a focus on process automation. Prior to Joining SPRK, Maria spent 5 years at Salary Finance and before this held finance roles in the petrochemical sector in Venezuela having worked for KPMG and PwC. Maria holds an MA in Audit and Accounting from the National University of Venezuela.
Alastair Hall
Business Dev Director
Alastair is an R&D tax and innovation funding specialist with over 15 years of experience. Prior to joining SPRK he was Managing Director of FI Group’s UK business including responsibility for all new business development and also helped build FI Group’s franchise in Asia. Prior to this Alasdair held a number of lead commercial roles at Leyton. Alastair holds both a Bachelors and Masters in Law.
James Adkin
Business Development Director
James has more than 25 years’ experience in financial services with a focus on equity and debt markets. He previously worked at Barclay Capital, Bank of America and Lehman Brothers where he held a number of UK and international roles. James holds a degree in Economics and Geography from UCL.
Mia Roberts
Business Development Manager
Mia has worked in business development for over 3 years having joined SPRK as her first role out of education. Mia focusses on new business, specialising in innovation funding for grant recipients.
Holly Ranson
Business Development Manager
Holly has worked in financial services for over 5 years and focuses on new business development for SPRK. Prior to joining SPRK Holly held a number of roles at Fidelity International. Holly holds qualifications from the Chartered Insurance Institute.
