VC-backed Wonga in battle with C of E

Ellie Pullen
25 July 2013

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The Archbishop of Canterbury has told the boss of Wonga, backed by a consortium of venture capital firms, that the Church of England plans to force it out of business, according to reports.

Wonga is backed by several venture capital players including Dawn Capital, Balderton Capital, Accel Partners, Greylock Partners and Oak Investment Partners, as well as the Wellcome Trust.

The Archbishop, the Most Rev Justin Wilby, reportedly told Wonga founder and CEO Errol Damelin that the Church of England plans to make credit unions a safer and more attractive alternative to payday lenders. The Archbishop has already launched a new credit union, the Clergy Mutual Credit Union, for clergy and church staff.

According to the BBC, Archbishop Wilby told Damelin that the Church will try to compete against Wonga in an attempt to force it "out of existence".

To date, Wonga has received approximately $144m in funding from its consortium of backers. The company's series-A round took place in June 2007 and saw Balderton provide $6m, according to unquote" data. This was followed by a series-B round in June 2009, in which Accel, Balderton, Greylock and Dawn jointly invested $22m.

The firm's largest funding round took place in February 2011. Existing investor Dawn – as well as new backers Oak Investment, the Wellcome Trust and Meritech – together provided £73m ($114m) to the payday lender.