Published: November 13, 2025 at 10:49 pm
When Clare Gambardella joined Zopa in 2018, the business was at a pivotal moment in its relatively short history.
The now-unicorn was in the process of moving from a peer-to-peer lending platform into a fully regulated digital bank.
Gambardella had joined as chief customer officer (CCO) from Virgin Active, where she had spent nearly five years and worked her way up to CMO.
Zopa describes itself as combining the reliability of a high street bank with the ease of app-based banking.
In September the digital bank revealed its plans to build a 500-strong workforce in Manchester after opening an office in the city.
In 2021 the digital bank achieved unicorn status when a £220m funding round pushed its valuation beyond $1bn.
Gambardella, who has been speaking at Lisbon’s BusinessCloud, tells BusinessCloud about the rise ad rise of Zopa.