alisa: i'm alisa parenti in washington, and you are watching "bloomberg technology." let's start with a check of your first word news. president trump says russian president vladimir putin would rather have had hillary clinton in the white house. he spoke in an interview set to air tomorrow. trump also says his meeting with putin at the g20 went well and that he would be very angry if the senate does not pass a health bill. pick for fbimp's director says efforts to interfere with u.s. elections should be reported to the bureau. christopher wray made the commons under question today by senator lindsey graham. wray does not consider the investigation into russian meddling a witchhunt. senate majority leader mcconnell

plans to introduce the revised gop health care bill tomorrow morning. republicans can only afford to lose three gop votes or the bill is doomed. at least a half-dozen republicans came out against the initial plan. and president trump's proposed tax cuts will lower federal revenue by nearly $8 trillion over a decade and benefit mostly the nation's highest earners, according to a new study. the top 1% could see gains of up to 18%. other americans will see an average 3.3% gain. global news, 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i'm alisa parenti. this is bloomberg. "bloomberg technology" is next. ♪

emily: i am emily chang. this is "bloomberg technology." coming up, silicon valley mobilizes against the fcc with its army of tens of thousands of tech companies. reddit co-founder alexis ohanian joins us with his take on the fight for net neutrality. plus competitive video gamers get their league. activision blizzard announces the sale of the first franchises. the new england patriots owner went all-in. we will bring you that conversation. we are live in sun valley, idaho, with one of silicon valley's most influential voices. sam altman joins us to discuss why he is leading the charge to find the next governor of california. first to our lead. the fight over net neutrality, a host of internet giants from amazon to facebook joining forces to protest the rollback of net neutrality rules. earlier this year, the fcc voted to start unwinding net neutrality rules put in place by

the obama administration. on one side, internet service providers like at&t, verizon, and comcast were largely in favor of less regulation. on the other, facebook, google, netflix, and other tech giants, who could be hurt if the government starts interfering with the internet. it is a proposal that the fcc chairman ajit pai has been pushing the proposal since his very first day in office under president trump. joining us now to discuss, reddit co-founder alexis thosen, reddit is among organizations protesting the rollback of the net neutrality. why join in on this protest? alexis: reddit has always been at the forefront of fighting for an open internet. this is something we believe in personally deeply. that is working with the chance apartmenteddit in with $12,000 in the bank. net neutrality made that possible. emily: you guys go big on your homepage, the site goes dark,

you have a message. other companies are telling users to take action. google, for example, saying today's open internet ensures that both new and established internet whether a company like google, or a small startup has the ability to reach users on in equal playing field. do you think this protest will make a difference? alexis: yes. because it has been great to see more and more companies come to join our ranks. a lot of folks remember the internet blackout that happened, sites like reddit and wikipedia protesting sopa-pipa. those happened because platforms and consumers basically had their voices heard, made phone calls. it seems very anachronistic. but calling your senators or your representative is still one of the best ways to get your voice heard. we now have an audience of hundreds of millions of people across these platforms, who are now informed and now going to be

pushed to action. while the fcc is not beholden to voters, because they are appointed by the president, our representatives, our congresspeople, our legislature is. if we can show this is an issue that is as bipartisan as we know it is, we can actually get those votes to crystallize some good legislation around this. emily: we did speak to the fcc commissioner a few months ago, appointed by president trump ajit pai. , take a listen to what he had to say about why he thinks this is important. ajit: 22 small isps told us this hangs over their businesses like a black cloud. that's the kind of regulatory uncertainty and overreach we want to remove, because every american deserves better, cheaper, faster internet, and i'm committed to delivering it to them. emily: he makes the argument that less regulation means more innovation, the future facebooks, googles, and netflixes of the world can develop. how do you respond to that argument? alexis: i only know it from the perspective of the entrepreneur.

i think chairman pai is a lawyer. that level playing field and net neutrality ensures guarantees innovation can thrive. at the end of the day, what we want is for the free market to pick winners and losers, not big cable. net neutrality is what makes the difference between those two things. emily: what if the rollback happens? what would the consequences be? alexis: it would only be the start of a conversation that i know america would need to have with their elected officials, but what we can expect is the kind of thing that unfortunately, won't surprise many people who have dealt with their isp's before. that is increased rates. you can imagine an internet that looks a lot like your cable television, where you get a default internet package that may have some news websites and some social networking sites you like, but the ones you love costs more. tiered internet is fundamentally broken. it is pretty offensive an idea to most americans who want to access the websites they want to

access and for so many entrepreneurs who want to know they can start a business and win because they have made something people want, and not lose simply because an incumbent has brokered a deal with isps. emily: the counterargument is that tech companies have become incredibly powerful. as we look at google, facebook, netflix. they are throwing their weight around. alexis: netflix is a great example. this was a company that, for years, was on our side, championing net neutrality, then they got to be really big. if you remember a couple months ago, people asked what side of this are you on and at first the company said we don't need it. here is a publicly traded company who is only beholden to their shareholders who, because of the blowback from their customers, because the american people said -- just kidding. we support net neutrality. we know this is important. we are expecting a similar thing to manifest now with our senators and representatives who will hear the same thing

from their constituents. whether you're trying to look at cat photos or you are a small business owner in kansas who is trying to start something, you want a level playing field. emily: dick costolo was on the show yesterday talking about the meeting between all of the tech leaders and president trump that they have been having in washington. he suggested that the president is not listening. he might be holding these meetings, but not actually listening to what tech leaders have to say. what's your message to the administration? alexis: right now we are primarily focused on the congress. we think, especially regarding net neutrality, this is something where the legislature can accomplish something that is actually bipartisan and what americans want. reddit inc., has never taken a formal trip to d.c. before. we actually will next month. now that we have a policy team forming. we want to start making relationships with senators and representatives.

representatives. we have not had any meetings yet with anyone on the executive side, but really our focus is where we can make immediate impact. that is on the legislative. emily: what's the latest on reddit? we know you recently returned to the company. what kind of progress has the company made? alexis: i give so much credit to my cofounder and ceo steve huffman. the two of us came back full time a little over two years ago. he has done an amazing job building this company into something formidable. we are shipping a ton of code. there are over 240 employees now. both the business and the product have grown significantly under his watch, so exciting times. emily: all right. reddit co-founder alexis ohanian, always good to have you on the show. thanks for stopping by. alexis: thank you. emily: this neutrality issue is also being discussed today at the annual conference in sun valley, idaho. tim armstrong, ceo of verizon's internet media business, gave us his take. tim: i think there's a lot of energy around making net neutrality work. overall i think when you zoom into verizon, we have put out a clear statement.

the company, which basically said look, verizon supports net neutrality. it has been penciled in. let congress pass real laws around it and cement it. i think it is great that there is a day of action that has been organized. all those things are really positive. sportscoming up each draws major -- esports draws some major investors, including the england patriots owner. we will hear from activation ceo bobby kotick next. "bloomberg technology" is life streaming on twitter. check us out on bloomberg tv 5:00 p.m. in new york, 2:00 p.m. in san francisco. this is bloomberg. ♪

emily: razer is shooting for a

hong kong ipo that could value the gaming gearmaker at as much as $5 billion. and help fund development of its own mobile phone. the company is said to be developing its own mobile device tailored for it is consumer base of gamers. the company sells its products via e-commerce giants and in chains like best buy across the u.s. it has sold $1 billion worth of product globally over the last three years. staying with gaming, sun valley idaho is where tech moguls are meeting and mingling. activision blizzard announced the sale of its franchises in the overwatch league. the first major esports league with city-based team. among the buyers, the owner of the new england patriots. i started by asking kraft why he made the move to esports. >> we love the infrastructure that bobby has set up at activision blizzard. we've looked at a lot. the overwatch league, to us,

having 30 million players at this point, just in this evolution, really appeals to us. the concept of having a team in the new england region -- we know we have an infrastructure that we can really do a great job with the development of that. being part of something that can be globalized is very, very relevant to us. emily: i want to talk a little bit about the finances here. bobby, how long do you think it will take before the overwatch league can compete with those leagues financially? bobby: it is important to us. we have a 26-year history of providing superior returns to our owners, and so we look at owners like robert kraft as an important constituent that we need to do our very best to provide a superior financial return as quickly as we can.

emily: now, bob, the franchise fee is $20 million over time. how much will it cost to operate a team in addition to that? >> we have not gotten into the details of the operating costs. when you look at the way we structure the league, the operating costs should be a lot lower than what you'd see in other traditional sports. emily: let's talk about the future of esports. esports on television still has not been a great success. bob, why do you think it can get there? bobby: we are looking at what's going on with sports generally. watching the millennials and the z generation, how they consume products on their mobile devices. but also how they don't watch traditional sports products the way our generations did. you see how much time is invested in playing these games and how they can connect with a

global audience while doing it is just unheard of to us 10, 15 years ago. we really believe this is the future. we think the infrastructure that bobby has set up was something that the investment that he made in this league is something that was very appealing to us and a great way for us to enter this business. we looked at a lot of alternatives. we felt this was the best way to do it. emily: so, bobby, how much will players make? can you give us an idea of that? bobby: i think the whole purpose for creating the overwatch league was in the service of celebrating our players and the commitment that our players make to this game in what's now 196 countries around the world. so, there isn't any good reason that a professional overwatch player shouldn't be rewarded and recognized like professional athletes.

our hope is that that is what will happen and it will happen as quickly as possible. emily: and what do you see as the biggest source of revenue of the future? will it be tickets, tv, sponsorships? bobby: all of those will be the revenues. the great opportunity for us is being able to partner with these incredibly successful owners and the young entrepreneurs who have built a lot of the endemic teams, who are really these high potential entrepreneurs that seized on esports as a great opportunity. the combination of the professional experience like we get with robert kraft and the great capabilities we have in some of our endemic owners should allow us to generate revenues in broadcast rights, sponsorships, in licensing, in venue fees. a big part of what we are trying to do in building a local-based league is build the local affinity that you see in traditional sports. so that the boston enthusiast, the boston players of overwatch

will have a place to go, heroes they can celebrate, role models that come from the professional athletes that are going to play our games, so that's a really important part of what we are doing. emily: bloomberg has reported that tv networks are breaking -- bracing for a drop in ad revenue based on nfl ratings last season. how do you respond to that? >> we are really here to talk about esports, emily. >> i will do it. i think anyone who looks at last year understands the role that the election had. look what the two news networks -- our main news networks are doing this year. i think after the election was over, the nfl was within 2% of ratings last year. i feel very confident that we are going to have a very strong ratings this coming year. you just wait and see and remember i told you that. emily: my conversation there

with activision ceo bobby kotick and bob kraft, chairman and ceo of the kraft group. coming up, yet another case of sexual misconduct coming out of venture capital, resulting in another partner heading for the exit sign. more on the backlash against sexual harassment in tech, next. this is bloomberg. ♪

emily: now to the latest in a series of scandals alleging sexual harassment and other offenses that have rocked the venture capital industry in the last few week. seattle-based ignition partners has announced its managing partner has resigned after receiving two claims of misconduct. in a statement, ignition said it received an anonymous allegation last week, which followed another accusation of inappropriate conduct last year.

joining us now, our bloomberg tech reporter lizette chapman, who covers venture capital. yet another case, yet another venture capitalist. what happens this time? lizette: some of the details are still coming out. we know is exactly -- what we know is what you said in the intro. there was a claim made against him a year ago. i understand the firm did investigate at that time. that is what we are being told. and that nothing happened at that time but then last week another allegation was made. as of last night, he had resigned. emily: it's worth going through what happened in the last few weeks. a big story where multiple women came forward about him harassing them. he resigned. the second fund is winding down. dave mcclure at 500 startup has resigned. chris sacca, and incident by the new york times, he has made

statements. what is the problem? lizette: there are a lot of vc's that have treated women improperly. based on the reporting that myself and others here at bloomberg have been doing over the past week, it sounds like it falls into two camps, the outright sexual assault and harassment and requests for a quid pro quo in some cases, where if you do x with me, i will invest in you. that's a very extreme example. most of them tend to fall in the second category, which is being spoken down to in many cases or having questions directed at their male co-founder rather than them, even though they happen to be the one pitching the company, and other slights. so, what is happening? i think that a lot of things are coming to a head. a lot of women are speaking out where before they were afraid to or felt like they would be

punished. emily: you mentioned marc canter, who is another punch for newer who was singled out by "the new york times," who has also made statements of apology. lizette: not really. there are apologies, then there is the second apology because the backlash against the initial apology was a parody. we will leave that there. the fact that this is happening to women is one problem. the fact that firms may know about it is another problem -- and not take action. what do we know in terms of what's happening on that front? lizette: that's a really good point. right now, in the case of ignition, for example, they did know. they did investigate. it seems there are a number of other firms asking questions of partners, whether it's already panned out, like in the case of

dave mcclure and 500 startup, or whether it's on the earlier side. the question then becomes, how much do they share among their network and do they pass along the information that the person is a bad actor? the first thing to determine is whether these allegations are true. it appears some conversations are going on to determine whether it's accurate. emily: former twitter ceo did costolo put the burden of responsibility on investors who fund venture capital firms and suggested that lp's know about this behavior some time and still fund these venture capitalists. what do we know about the diligence they are doing? isette: i think dick costolo overstating how much they know. when they do diligence in a firm, they will make 20, 30, 40 -- who knows how many reference calls? typically it is around that number to find out beyond the quantitative, who is this investor, what is their track

record, what is their i.r.r., do we like the geographic focus, you get into questions of character and judgment. questions are asked. when i was speaking to an lp source last year -- last week, this individual said, it seems like there's a code. i was told, go talk to these three people about this individual, and you will find some things out. this individual then said, and i called these people, and it was like the "twilight zone." maybe there is a code i'm not picking up on. i just talked to someone just now who said the worst reference you could possibly give someone is, oh, they're a great guy, i have worked with them, super experienced, hang up the phone. that's the worst you can say. what you really want to say is, you know, i wouldn't hesitate to back that person again. i would, you know, go and work with them in a heartbeat.

emily: difficult to figure out from a reporter's perspective what they knew and when. thanks so much. we will be right back after this quick break. ♪

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which is why comcast business delivers consistent network performance and speed across all your locations. hello, mr. deets. every branch running like headquarters. that's how you outmaneuver. >> it is 1:29 p.m. in sydney, 12:29 in tokyo. we have the latest first word news. the bank of korea's gdp growth will reach 2.8%, up from a previous production of 2.6%. the central bank expects inflation will remain in line with previous forecast of 1.5% with domestic demand to recover moderately. the bok left its interest rate unchanged and said it will maintain its combination. airports continuing success has graded yet another wealthy men. is chairman of taiwan's semi celebrating billionaire status

thanks to the upcoming new iphone. 25%,s shares have surged lifting morris chang's personal revenue. chang is 86 is old and owns 1.5% of the business through his family. the former brazilian president has been convicted of corruption and sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison. he was found guilty of graft and lonnie marjorie in the sweeping -- and money laundering. a huge blow to his hopes of returning to power in the next election. still he remains one of the most popular petition -- popular politicians in brazil. an iceberg weighing one trillion tons has split in anger to cut, about the size of greater london. it is not likely to raise sea levels. the split was being monitored biplanes and satellites, expected to break up into smaller icebergs that may drift

into smaller waters. environmentalists say it shows how fragile the polar regions have become. global news powered by 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries, this is bloomberg. >> we have a check on the market. the asian markets are writing the yellen rally with all sectors higher. japanese shares are adding 1/10 of 1%, back below $1.13. chinese stocks adding half a percent, and in at $3.4 billion higher than expected, that is nudging the aussie higher to that 70 sent level. andes in seoul, hong kong sidney sent for a record while the yuan is getting a boost from the bok, leading asian currencies higher amid dollar weakness.

the bloomberg index is at the lowest since september 2016. bonds are rising as well as base metals. we have the gains for oils. new york crude back at 45 bucks a barrel. that is been a -- has been a boost. ♪ emily: staying with the annual conference in sun valley, idaho, jared kushner and ivanka trump are said to be heading there to mingle with tech and media moguls. this as the email scandal concerning the trump administration's possible ties to russia continues to swirl in washington. bloomberg's david gura is standing by in sun valley with a very special guest. david: thank you very much. i'm here with sam altman, the president of y combinator. out with a new project today called the united slate. tell us about it. sam: we are trying to recruit a slate of candidates and someone to run a ballot initiative for

the california 2018 election. we are unhappy with where the political system has gotten. a lot of people in the country are unhappy. we are in the middle of this massive shift. the technological revolution is as big as the agricultural revolution or the industrial revolution. it is time for a new social contract and a very different way of doing things where everyone can benefit. david: how are you picking who you would back among those who express interest? sam: i tried the principle of here is what i think is important. here are my 10 core principles. there's a long list. if you agree with these, then i'm interested in talking. i'm interested in people who are great leaders, effective people, and generally agree with what i think. but open to career politicians, new people who want to become politicians. david: as you talk to those people who may or may not be interested in getting into politics, what's the hurdle? if you know someone who is bright and optimistic, what's keeping him or her from doing it, in your experience?

sam: so many things. people like their lives. why would i go do -- i understand we need better people in politics, but what a miserable life. i don't want to subject myself to that. that's a big hurdle to get over. david: why is this the route? if you want to effect change in policy, why is getting into that arena a way to make change? sam: that's how our political system works. that is the fundamental tenet of democracy, that the people have to participate. if all of us say it is somebody else's problem and i'm going to just focus on my job and what i do, then i think we get into the situation we are in now. david: how wide is the ideological gap between where you live and washington? i recall during the last situation we are in now. administration, the secretary of defense went out to silicon valley, tried to make some inroads. how wide is that gap? has it gotten any narrower? sam: i would say it's gotten

wider with the current administration. i think there are huge changes coming. you can pretend they are not coming and tell people the cause of their problems is something else, or you can be honest about what's happening, and that's harder. the current administration doesn't do that. david: living where i live in new york, reporting in washington dc, we have been told that peter thiel is the conduit through which silicon valley can channel its interest in policy, what it wants to see changed, through him. is that happening? you know him well. he is a partner at y combinator. is he doing that? is he a voice for you and your colleagues? >> i don't think he has been that conduit a lot of times. i hope somebody does it. david: you said you were not going to cut ties with him. have you reevaluated that? sam: he has never been a partner at the firm. he advises. that is one of the many kind of

things that is wrong with this current political system. if someone disagrees with me, i'm cutting ties with them. we have gotten into the situation we are in because of extreme behavior like that. i don't think that's the path forward. part of the reason i picked united is we need people to say, hey, we are all in this together. if america falls from global world superpower status, that's really bad for all of us. we have devolved into this fight where it's like, i hate you, you're horrible, you are the worst thing ever, absolute extreme statements -- which is not a surprise, given we have a reality tv star as our president. i really think we need to get back to an atmosphere where we say here are these fundamental american principles, here are the policies we want to see enacted, and we need to work with everybody to make this happen. david: there was a moment where a lot of the country was looking to silicon valley to lead on a number of these issues. i think of marc benioff, others who have spoken out on the issues of immigration,

inequality. how do you get others to embrace that in the long term? the election has passed. there may be dissatisfaction with some quarters with who is in office. how can keep the engagement in the political system up? sam: i'm trying to do my part here. i hope other people will do other things as well. given that this is a technology revolution we are in the middle of, i do think there is a moral obligation for people -- i wouldn't call myself a tech leader, but people in the tech industry to be vocal and try to help and try to get involved. i think -- we have an opportunity and a responsibility to show people a better future and say here is what life could be like. we can get to a place where young families can afford homes. we can get to a place where everyone has world-class education, everyone has great health care provided by the state. our current government is in the way of that. here is a set of technology and policy that we can get back to. we were the greatest country in

the world and still are, but we were especially great when we were really good as a country at leading the world in technology across many different industries. and we invested probably more than anybody ever has in research and development. our government did that. it led to massive prosperity. in this country we had 100 years of incredible territorial expansion and years of 100 incredible technological expansion. we've had this massive growth, which you need in a democracy to work. everyone is sensitive to their lives getting better every year. if there is economic growth, our lives get better. if there is no growth, you have to vote against me. your life getting better has to come at the expense of mine. that is where we are right now. we desperately need to get back to technological growth as a country. it's up to us to explain to people why that can work. david: you've made the argument there should be freer or open immigration policies.

do you feel like you are winning that argument? is that argument being made well? sam: clearly not. it's not happening whether we are making the argument well or not. david: about it -- you are optimistic about it still? sam: we should think about how many people at this conference are immigrants. we need to think about how many people came here and built these companies that have created hundreds of thousands, millions of jobs? there's an argument to make, and i'm willing to consider both sides that low-scale immigration is not necessarily good for the country, but there is no argument i have ever heard that letting entrepreneurs into the country, letting the world's smartest scientists into the country is not good for us. that argument, i do feel like, we can win and we will, but we got caught up in this -- david: it's been a great pleasure speaking with you, sam altman of y combinator. and of the united slate.com. back to you. emily: david gura on the ground for us in sun valley.

thanks so much. now amazon's third annual prime day ended of being its biggest ever global shopping event, surpassing sales on black friday and cyber monday. by more than 60% over the last year, generating about $1 billion in revenue. the 30 hour event also saw more new members joining prime than any other day .it also saw more coming up, london has been known as the hub of fintech. does this reputation still hold true? we will talk with the ceo next. if you like bloomberg news, check us out on the bloomberg radio app, bloomberg.com, and in the u.s. on sirius xm. this is bloomberg. ♪

emily: an update on the story we told you about earlier in the week. the chinese government says it

will not disrupt legitimate access to the global internet by businesses and general users. the response comes after bloomberg reported that china had ordered telecom carriers to bar individuals from using vpn services to circumvent its great firewall. the ministry of information -- of industry and information technology said in a statement, "trade or multinational enterprises if they require to -- require other methods to access the internet abroad can turn to authorized telecommunications entities. the existing notice will not affect normal operations." sticking with global news, this marks fintech week in london. we are now joined by's caroline hyde, who will be speaking with a special guest. caroline: this week is fintech week in london. clearly the ecosystem is alive and well as a new funding round was announced today for resolute. it has $66 million to fund

international expansion and a move to crypto currency. there is one man who knows what it is like to scale a london-based fin tech company successfully. samir desai, ceo of funding circle, the number one online there is one man wholender to sd businesses, and one of the u.k.'s so-called unicorns. samir is joining us live from san francisco. you are asia man. i want to start with -- you are a jetset man. i want to start with the fact you have scaled. you have headquarters in berlin and san francisco. how is the u.s. business going? samir: it's going really well. if you look at our business, we started in the u.k. in 2010 and we launched in the u.s. in 2013. we've been really pleased with the progress. around 30% of our business globally now is actually from overseas markets, not from the u.k., and those are growing at a much faster rate than the u.k. we have been really pleased with the progress today. we subsequently entered germany

and the netherlands as well. we would like to keep adding more and more international markets over time. caroline: europe, done. you've got u.s. on the agenda. what about asia? would you look to her further abroad? samir: well, we are not quite done with europe yet. i think we are in three markets. there are many more that we would like to go to. but what we've found with our business model is it does work regardless of the market. we want funding circle to be the first choice for small businesses globally, wherever they are, when they want to access finances to expand and grow. i think we've got a little bit more work to do in europe before we start looking to other markets. caroline: how has, of course, the ever ongoing brexit debate affected you? has it affected lending on funding circle? has it affected the investor

base or the business looking for small loans? samir: when brexit happened, we were concerned, to put it mildly. it was a big dislocation event. we didn't really know how people would react. what we came out and said to our small business customers and the wider market, we are very much open for business. we started funding circle just after one of the biggest financial crises there were, because we felt there needed to be an alternative way of getting money to small businesses. actually what we've seen since brexit is businesses boom. funding circle originated record amounts of loans in the first six months of the year. funding circle did nearly as much net new lending in the u.k. as the entire banking system combined. what you're starting to see is, even in times of stress, actually this model can really provide a viable alternative. so, far from being the kind of event that we were worried about, it actually provided a

great opportunity for the business. caroline: i mentioned you are also in europe and, of course, you have been based in berlin. there is news out today that samsung is launching a new vc that will be looking for offices in berlin. how much are you surprised by the vc money coming into europe? are you feeling like it's escalating? is money coming into the startup scene? samir: what we've noticed over the past few years, really you can start a business anywhere. it could be in europe, it could be in asia, it could be in the u.s. actually, a lot of the capital, the venture capital and late stage money, is increasingly becoming global. it's agnostic about where a business starts. what people are really looking for is ambitious businesses looking to go global. and i think it makes sense for people to have lots of different operations in different markets, to be close to the entrepreneurs and businesses trying to do that.

caroline: talking about being close to entrepreneurs and businesses. interesting to me -- i think it is in your london office, you have an entire floor open to companies, startups smaller than yourselves who want to come and rent. why do this? are you looking at acquisition opportunities, or do you just want to be close to what these other startups are doing? samir: it is very simple really. our business is growing incredibly fast, so we have originated about $4 billion since we started the business seven years ago. $1 billion of that came in the last six months. the business is scaling incredibly fast, and what that means is we need to keep adding more and more people all the time. what we found was that we were constantly having to move offices. by taking another floor and actually renting it out, we actually are able to make a little bit of money on that, but also -- which wasn't the primary aim, but it gives us space we can flow into. it has actually been really nice. we have a number of different startups there.

it is cheaper than renting anywhere else to be honest in london. it's created a nice little ecosystem in its own right. unfortunately we are going to kill that because we have to move into all that space at some point. it's been nice while it lasted. caroline: a record-breaking 2017 in terms of new lending and managing to have a side business as well in terms of renting out. great to speak with you, samir desai. thank you so much for your time. can't wait to have you back here in london. ceo of funding circle. thank you very much. emily: all right. caroline hyde for us in london. thanks caroline. coming up, global cyber security concerns continue to take center stage. we will talk to the ceo of flashpoint to see what the firm is doing to prevent future attacks. this is bloomberg. ♪

emily: earlier today, christopher wray, president trump's pick to lead the fbi, faced the senate judiciary committee.

wray was asked about his thoughts on the ongoing debate over the battle of encryption versus privacy. take a listen. mr. wray: i do know that we are going to have to, as a society, both the fbi, the justice department, this committee and others, industry, our foreign partners -- we are going to have to find solutions to these problems, because the role of technology is overtaking us all. i'm committed to work with everyone to find a solution. emily: sticking with the fbi, one former consultant to the fbi's senior management team is now the ceo of the cybersecurity firm flashpoint. josh lefkowitz executes the company's strategic vision to empower organizations with business risk intelligence derived from the deep dark web. earlier today, the company announced the close of a series $28 million c funding round. josh joins us now live from new york. josh, you are ability to see

deeply into the dark web has been touted. what gives you any special ability over the other firms? josh: what we do at flashpoint is, first and foremost, understand our customers' requirements. we work with customers across 18 different verticals, from financial services, retail, legal, and well beyond. we have an approach that really blends a deep fusion of subject matter expertise with analysts who speak 15 different languages who understand the intricacies and complexities of illicit hacker communities, whether they be eastern european, cybercrime in all communities, iranian hacker communities, etc. and pair them up with software developing technology that provides a level of scale and visibility that heretofore was unavailable in the enterprise market. and what we've found is that has enabled us to really position as a true partner helping our customers across the enterprise

to navigate through and address problem sets that are multivariable, highly sensitive, and truly complex. emily: some of your analysts used to work for u.s. intelligence agencies. how do they do their job without the resources of the u.s. government? josh: what we've found in this dates back to the origins of the company in the early 2000's, is that there is a tremendous richness of intelligence, open-source, unclassified intelligence that can be gleaned if you know where to look. that's why, when you look at our model, which again pairs that deep subject matter expertise with technology, those subject matter experts play such a critical role, to really have that radar and that situational awareness to understand where illicit actors in particular communities operate. is it in deep web, dark web password-protected marketplaces, is it in internet relay chat, peer-to-peer chat software, etc.?

without that deep, on the ground understanding from your subject matter experts, it presents a real problem. we have been fortunate to attract some of the best in the industry that are a core driver without that deep, on the ground of the success we have experienced to date and will be a core driver of the success we are forecasting going forward. emily: very quickly, big banks, energy firms, insurance companies are all using your technology. but some of them just want the bad guys out. do they really need to know who hacked them or why? josh: it's a great question. i think in many ways, it's less about the attribution and more about the how and why. when we think about business risk intelligence, it's about driving more informed decision-making around risks you may be exposed to. certainly cybersecurity teams are front and center, but it expands more broadly to insider

threats, thistles look -- fraud, and well beyond. what we've seen is the ability -- emily: we will have to leave it there. i'm sorry, josh lefkowitz. flashpoint ceo, thanks so much for joining us. we will be back with more "bloomberg technology" tomorrow. ♪

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