Virgin buys stake in manager of friends-and-family loans

boston -- British billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin USA investment firm recently acquired a majority ownership stake in a Waltham, Mass.-based venture called CircleLending that helps manage loans between family and friends and tries to avoid misunderstandings and repayment disputes.

CircleLending and Branson plan to announce today in Boston that the venture is being rebranded Virgin Money USA.

Virgin is investing “tens of millions” of dollars in the private venture, said Asheesh Advani, CircleLending’s founder and chief executive, who declined to disclose a specific amount.

Investments by Virgin and smaller financial backers also will enable the business to double from 30 to 60 employees, buy newspaper advertisements and offer new products such as student loans, Advani said in an interview. To date, most advertising has been online or in radio spots.

Advani’s 6-year-old company emerged alongside the “peer-to-peer” lending industry that seeks to snatch business away from banks by using the Internet to match borrowers with lenders. However, unlike CircleLending, those services generally pair up strangers.

People who have already agreed to a loan come to CircleLending to work out repayment terms. Loan payments are electronically credited to and debited from the participants’ bank accounts.