Later this week, wonga.com’s CEO Errol and team member Lizzie will be attempting the Antarctic Ice Marathon, near the South Pole, one of the world’s driest and most inhospitable environments. They are attempting to raise thousands of pounds to provide clean water for 5,000 people.

The event comprises 26.2 miles of treacherous snow and ice at an altitude of approx. 3,000 ft. They’ll be running in sub-zero temperatures on an active glacier, not to mention the potential bone chilling Katabatic winds that can bring the windchill temperature to -30C. Only 100 people have ever completed this mammoth event (fewer than 14 women). This year’s race will be especially significant as it marks the 100 year anniversary of man first reaching the South Pole.

If you wish to donate it would be massively appreciated, you can do so here

Any amount will help immensely and will also help to motivate Errol and Lizzie in what’s going to be a mammoth event. You can also follow their progress on Lizzie’s blog here

A fine effort once again from Team Wonga! If you’re planning to run a marathon or half marathon for charity, send us an email at marathon@wonga.com we may be able to help with fundraising.

Our founder and CEO Errol Damelin was named Entrepreneur of the Year by the European Tech Tour Association at a recent gala awards ceremony in London. It was the latest in a long string of awards for Wonga.

The awards are based on Wonga’s impressive growth in the UK. The company, which has raised venture capital from various investors, has revolutionized the UK’s huge consumer credit market by developing technology which assesses people’s credit worthiness and approves or denies loans within 15 minutes.
Here’s an extract from Informilo:

“To be successful you have to understand a need,” says Errol, “and people need short term cash frequently at quick notice, in a frictionless way.”

He stresses that Wonga offers a better deal than the banks and is more ethical because it feels more transparent.

“We use our sophisticated credit decision technology to ensure we only help appropriate people and give customers unique control,” he says.

Read more here.

With her esteemed colleagues, Earl and Betty, Joyce has been painstakingly thinking up questions for her Pub Quiz promotion. She was hoping to focus on topics concerning tea and biscuits however Betty made sure there was to be some variety in the questions, and as usual Earl couldn’t get a word in edgeways. Betty got her way and the questions are based on music, current affairs, sport, history, TV, film, famous people and of course, wonga.com trivia and wonga.com picture based questions. Click here to visit wonga.com’s Facebook page and check it out.

Create a team with your friends and win amazing prizes including your share of the £1000 total prize pot, plus items from our awesome range of wonga.com goodies! Get a good score and you’ll also win prizes as an individual!

Don’t worry if you’re rubbish at quizzes, whether you score high or low in Joyce’s quiz it’s great fun to play and what’s more, you’ll be eligible to win wonga.com goodies just for taking part.

This awesome game truly captures the key features of our product – speed, flexibility and control.

Good luck!

Our founder & CEO was last night awarded with the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for E-commerce, UK. We were proud to announce back in June that Errol had scooped the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of The Year Award for the London & South Region and now his achievements have been recognised on the national stage.

Sponsored by Credit Suisse, hosted by Fiona Bruce and attended by Business Secretary, Vince Cable, the awards ceremony was held at a Central London hotel last night. Errol competed with 42 other business leaders from companies across the UK including Nails Inc., Adconion Media Group and The Mountain Group.

Judges praised the innovation and ‘bright technology and mathematics behind the business model’ and described Errol as a highly innovative entrepreneur creating a global impact.

We’re all delighted for him because it’s one of the world’s most prestigious awards for entrepreneurs. The scheme encourages entrepreneurial activity and recognises the contribution of people who inspire others with their vision, leadership and achievement.

It’s also Errol’s fifth major entrepreneurial award in the last 12 months and his sixth since starting Wonga! Others include the TechCrunch Europas, Founder of the Year; Fast Growth Business Awards, Entrepreneur of the Year; Digital Entrepreneur of the Year and Credit Suisse Entrepreneur of the Year.

This caps a fantastic fortnight for Wonga after being ranked as number one by the Sunday Times in their recent Tech Track 100 which recognises revenue growth, innovation and future prospects. Once again, Errol and Wonga are immensely proud to add another award to the cabinet as we continue to make strides in our area.

It was Wonga’s first year of eligibility for the highly influential Tech Track 100, which looks at revenue growth, innovation and future prospects, so we are in celebratory mood after this morning’s Sunday Times showed we had taken the top spot!

Yep, number one, numero uno, first in line, top of the pops.

The Sunday Times Tech Track 100 league table ranks Britain’s private tech (TMT) companies with the fastest-growing sales over the latest three years.

The league table was backed up by a sizeable article about Wonga, including these comments…

One of Wonga’s greatest achievements is that it scarcely needs an introduction. In four years, the online money lender has invested heavily to try to build a reputation in a market whose ethical credentials are often regarded with suspicion.

Errol Damelin, chief executive, started Wonga in 2006 when he realised short-term credit was one of the few consumer industries the internet had hardly touched. With models such as Amazon and Facebook in mind, he and technical director Jonty Hurwitz set out to create a website that would challenge competitors by offering instant decisions and total transparency over what borrowers would end up paying.

New customers can borrow up to £400 and nobody can get more than £1,000. The maximum loan period is 30 days, and Wonga can deposit money into a customer’s account within 15 minutes.

Damelin, who built and sold two tech companies before founding Wonga, says all the technology was developed in-house. “Nothing like it existed in the market. People thought it wasn’t possible to deliver loans this seamlessly,” he says.

Of course we knew we were growing fast and we have hundreds of thousands of happy customers to thank for our success so far, but we’re all honoured to receive this kind of respected recognition.

We’ve been very busy lately here at Wonga helping our co-employee, Earl to organise his raffle. With his colleagues, Betty and Joyce, Earl has been locating appropriate prizes that he feels our beloved customers will appreciate. Unfortunately, he doesn’t always get it right, occasionally coming across slightly limited with his choices, hence the Steven Seagall DVD, the 90’s Rave album’s, and the ‘chattering dentures’- let’s be honest, who doesn’t need these?! However don’t despair, there are still plenty of popular prizes up for grabs such as cash prizes, Amazon vouchers , Wonga hoodies and more.

Every morning, working days of course, Joyce has been painstakingly tidying Earl’s table of prizes fuelled by a constant supply of tea and custard creams thanks to the lovely Betty. Meanwhile Earl has been choosing three new winning Raffle tickets at random and posting them on our Wonga Facebook Profile pic.

Fancy your chances? Why not play in the raffle! If you’re a Wonga.com customer you may already have received a ticket. If you haven’t received a ticket, visit ‘Earl’s Raffle’ tab on our Facebook page , enter your details and Earl will send you one. You can also enter your email if you’d like an extra ticket – up to a maximum of one extra ticket every 72 hours.

Good luck!

At Wonga HQ this week we’ve been debating the Premiership season ahead. Will Torres grow her his hair again? Can Tevez swallow his pride and brave the wet Mancunian weather once more? And can Rooney behave himself? The suspense is high as the curtain prepares to fall on the new season….

How did your team fair last season..not great? Same here! Nevertheless we’re all back again for the sheer pleasure of pitting our wits against the big wide world of football fans out there. It’s time again to assemble your Fantasy Football team and compete for cash prizes in the Wonga.com Mini League!

Join our Wonga.com Mini League and win Cash prizes!

At Wonga we’ve created a Mini League for all of our beloved fans. What’s more, we’re offering up amazing prizes. A cash prizepool will be allocated to the top 3 points winners in the mini league by the end of the season – it’s starting at £100 and increasing by £100 for every 250 fans! What’s more, there will be 10 monthly winners of Wonga.com merchandise.

Simply register your entry through our Facebook page, create your team and join our league!
Click here to find out how to enter!

Tips:
Do you have the tactical skills of Mourinho, the wheeling dealing skills of Harry Redknapp, or the man management skills of the French at a World Cup? Before you take the plunge and pick your team for the coming season we’ve gathered our resident office footy geeks to offer up some words of wisdom…

Strategies:
The ‘balanced’ team strategy– This tends to be the most popular gameplan for captains who want no ‘weak link’ in their team. However the issues here are that it’s not always easy to have quality all round without making a compromise. So here we’re talking of a full squad of mid price players like N’Zogbia or Downing rather than your big hitters such as the Rooney or Lampard. Whilst this may make for points being equally spread, it may not be wise to miss out on some of the game’s heavy hitters.

The ‘solid defence’ strategy – Sometimes referred to as the ‘yawn ‘strategy this is the tactic of starting from the back and choosing the best defenders to guarantee that whether your forwards score or not at least you can rely on points from your defenders and goalkeeper. Here the tactic is to look at defenders that take set pieces, even penalties and can even nick a goal as well as that clean sheet so – The solid keepers such as Hart, Cech or Reina (Man Utd.’s De Gea may need a season to settle) and defenders such as Vidic, Baines and Hangeland. Only problem with this is that your strike force may be compromised as you’ve spent your £’s on shoring up the defence!

The ‘star captain’ strategy – Remember each gameweek you allocate a captain who will have their points haul doubled. So given that, this may be the secret ingredient you’ve been looking for although a little risky. The idea here is to go for the big hitters, the players that it may be dangerous not to have – the likes of Van der Vaart, Rooney, Van Persie and Lampard. Obviously these guys come at a price meaning that you have to choose 3 or possibly four of these fantasy football point grabbers and then fill in the gaps with cheaper options. Bargains may be youngsters, unknowns or those temporarily filling in for injured positions. This tactic sounds like a lot of news and blog skimming, but if you have the time or the will, this is by far the smartest strategy.

However you choose, remember it’s not over until the fat lady sings. Good luck!

How would you spend your dream holiday? As peak holiday season is underway, at Wonga we would love to know what our fans think.

To that end our social media gurus at Wonga have come up with an exciting promotion in which you can vote for all the elements that make up the perfect holiday, and then we’re giving you the opportunity to win it! The promo reflects our key product values of speed, flexibility and control. The choice is truly yours – vote in the weekly polls to create your dream holiday whether it’s to be relaxing, sporty or all night clubbing, you choose!

All you need to do to be entered into the prize draw is visit the Wonga.com Facebook fan page and click on the ‘Perfect Holiday’ app. There you will be able to vote on the destination and accommodation as well as your favourite activities, nightclubs, ways of getting around and some exciting extras.

Earn entries into the main prize draw for the holiday by voting and gain an extra entry for every friend you invite that also votes. Find out more about the poll options here and good luck!

Our founder & CEO has just scooped a prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award , after being chosen by the independent panel of judges, chaired by former Rank Group CEO Ian Burke.

Sponsored by Credit Suisse and hosted by the BBC’s Jeremy Vine, the awards dinner was held in London last night and Errol competed with over 50 inspirational business leaders across London and the South.

We’re all as pleased as punch for him because it’s one of the world’s most prestigious awards for entrepreneurs. The scheme encourages entrepreneurial activity and recognises the contribution of people who inspire others with their vision, leadership and achievement.

It’s also an incredible achievement since it’s Errol’s fourth major entrepreneurial award in the last 12 months and his sixth since starting Wonga! Others include the TechCrunch Europas, Founder of the Year; Fast Growth Business Awards, Entrepreneur of the Year; Digital Entrepreneur of the Year and Credit Suisse Entrepreneur of the Year. Errol will go on to compete in the national round for online products and services this October.

We’re proud to add it to the awards cabinet and are delighted for all the other winners too. It was a great evening.

At Wonga headquarters we’re very excited. That’s because it’s the two weeks of the year where we try our best to support the Brits at tennis whilst enjoying our favourite summertime treats such as strawberries and cream and Murray mints. Murray mints you ask? Indeed, we’re handing them out for each game the mighty Andy Murray wins, what’s more, we’re giving away vouchers for strawberries and cream whenever it takes our fancy. Not to be forgotten is the main cash draw after the Men’s Final on 4th July where each entrant has a chance to win a share of £300.

All you need to do to be in for a chance of winning is visit our Facebook page and play our mini video game, ‘WongaTennis’. It has been a massive ‘hit’ (excuse the pun) so far with thousands of Wonga’s Facebook fans. In the style of the famous tennis games we all grew up with in the 70’s (if you’re that old!) users can access it through the Wonga.com Facebook fan page and within seconds be playing our simple and fun video game. Scoring is the same as traditional tennis games in a quick ‘best of three’ format, plus we’re awarding style points for how quickly you can beat your opponent. We’re big on the community feel with the use of global Leaderboard and another one just for your Facebook friends tracking high scores. Don’t worry if you’re not a video game ‘geek’, win or lose you’ll be entered into the draw for Cash and prizes.

Once again we’re proud to be bringing something new and exciting to the public arena that reflects the essence of what we stand for as a company – speed, flexibility and control. Have fun playing WongaTennis and of course, supporting the Brits!