Russian Startup Blackmoon Wants to Play Middleman in Marketplace Lending

Russian startup Blackmoon, that screens other company’s loans before selling them to investors, has launched in the US, drawn to the lure of its $1 trillion addressable market. Blackmoon aims to reach a billion dollar in loans by the end of 2017 and is targeting business, consumer, student and car loans.

The company provides ‘marketplace lending as a service’ working as a middleman between debt investors, lenders as well as banks. Its platform brokers deals between balance sheet lenders and investors. The company was founded in Moscow City last year by investor and entrepreneur Oleg Seydak. Seydak was a partner at venture capital fund Flint Capital and managing director of private equity firm FINAM Global.

Cofounder Ilya Perekospky in an interview with Venturebeat said that the US market is ripe with opportunity for companies like Blackmoon. “We believe that existing marketplace lenders have only scratched the surface with respect to the volume of loans being originated in the U.S. today,” he said. “The size of the marketplace lending market is measured in billions of dollars, whereas balance-sheet lender loan origination volume is nearly a trillion U.S. dollars or more.”