Peer-to-peer lender Zopa has marked the tenth anniversary of its service.

The British business launched on March 8th 2005 after being founded in a barn in Buckinghamshire. It has since spawned a global industry worth more than $10 billion worldwide, with over £2.3 billion of money being matched in the UK alone.

The lender has this week surpassed £750 million in loans to UK customers, and expects to pass the £1 billion mark this summer. It has now lent money from more than 58,000 individuals across Britain to over 107,000 individual borrowers for cars, home improvements and paying off existing debts.

Zopa has delivered an average rate of return of 5.6% (after fees and any losses from bad debts) over the past decade to its lenders.

Giles Andrews (pictured), Zopa CEO and co-founder, said: “It’s hard to believe that we’ve gone from an idea in a barn to a global industry now lending billions of pounds in the course of a decade. We created Zopa because we saw the potential to bring people together over the internet without having to go through a bank. This has prompted a revolution in the financial sector worldwide.

“We are very proud to have pioneered a new way to do finance by allowing people to achieve their life goals through lending or getting a loan at a great rate. I see Zopa becoming the norm in the same way EBay has. Peer-to-Peer lending is certainly here to stay.”