In table tennis, revenge is a dish best served fast.
That is what scores of employees of Funding Circle Ltd, the UK’s top online lender, craved last week as Ping Pong Fight Club got under way in a cavernous loft space in London’s East End.
The stakes were high. Last year, Funding Circle’s champion, Luis Pinto, was toppled by newcomer Francesco Lo Franco of LendInvest Ltd, another online lender.
Photo: Bloomberg
This year, Lo Franco, a 32-year-old software engineer from Rome, had a new employer — and the same forehand smash.
As the thwack of little flying balls filled the air at the tournament for start-ups, a clutch of employees in blue T-shirts from Flyt, which makes customer management technology for restaurants, rallied around Lo Franco. Across the room, men and women sporting purple T-shirts with Funding Circle logos knocked back beers and hollered encouragement at Pinto. A player at a third team showed off a new tattoo of crossed ping pong paddles on his bicep.
“This is getting more important every year,” said Pinto, 29, an information-technology specialist from Salamanca, Spain. “The pressure is on.”
In more ways than one. For all of the cheer and hip-hop thumping throughout the hall, there was an unmistakable undercurrent of anxiety as London’s tech community reckoned with the coming of Brexit. EU nationals have chafed at the message that their adopted nation wants them to leave.
Watching Pinto and Lo Franco make quick work of their opponents, Funding Circle cofounder James Meekings could not help but observe that both hailed from the continent.
“It isn’t just that we’re at risk of losing our engineering talent, we might lose our ping-pong stars as well,” Meekings said, half-joking.
More than 30 percent of Funding Circle’s London employees are EU nationals. Ever since the company was founded in 2010, many have gravitated to the ping-pong table that cofounder Samir Desai set up in its lobby, next to a cabinet that has steadily filled up with trophies.
It was Lo Franco versus Pinto in the final, a best-of-three contest. As the crowd surged around the center table, Adrian Leigh, CEO and emcee of Ping Pong Fight Club, took a look around.
“We do revenge at Ping Pong Fight Club,” Leigh said. “Gather your thoughts, gather your friends, gather your enemies!”
Desai and Meekings led a chant of “Luis! Luis!” as Pinto, bouncing on the balls of his feet, served a spinning ball to Lo Franco. Lo Franco netted it, then hit the next shot into the rafters, but the Italian rebounded. By the time he uncoiled a forehand smash to the corner, the game was won.
In Game 2, Pinto quickly racked up points. When he sent a backhand shot whizzing by Lo Franco’s head, Desai and his crew fist-pumped and let out a mighty yell, but Lo Franco smacked shots down the middle of the table that Pinto found hard to return. The Italian drew even, then ahead.
At match point, Pinto hit the ball into the net and hung his head. Lo Franco hoisted the silver Ping Pong Fight Club Cup, which was filled with tequila, to his lips in victory.
Desai and Meekings hoisted Pinto onto their shoulders and the rest of the Funding Circle crew slapped his back. The Spaniard dropped his game face and cracked a big smile. Maybe he was already thinking of next year. Revenge could wait.
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