Catching Up With Online Lending – A Timeline

• Online lender Upgrade, launched by former Lending Club CEO Renaud Laplanche, revealed it had already hired about 100 people
• Credit risk startup James closed $2.7M funding found led by Gaël de Boissard

7/18 – Former Bizfi COO Tomo Matsuo joined iPayment as an SVP to oversee its new merchant cash advance division
7/21 – SoFi Chief Revenue Officer Michael Tannenbaum departed the company
7/27

• Lending surpassed $500M in lifetime originations
• RealtyShares acquired marketplace platform Acquire Real Estate

7/28

• Former MB Financial Bank SVP Stan Scott became VP at Gibraltar Business Capital
• Prosper Marketplace shut down its Prosper Daily (formerly BillGuard) app

7/31 – First Associates Loan Servicing announced the opening of their new 1000-seat capacity operations center in Baja California, Mexico
8/1

• Ron Suber joined Credible.com as executive vice-chairman and a member of the board of directors
• PeerStreet integrated with Personal Capital

8/2

• Lending Loop raised $2M, launched automated investment platform
• PeerIQ secured $12M in Series A round
• OnDeck partnered with Payment Source in Canada
• Bread raised $126M in equity and debt

8/3 – Kabbage secured $250M in Series F round from SoftBank Group, was valued at more than $1.25B
8/9

• Former Capital One VP Heather Tuason became Chief Product Officer at StreetShares
• PayPal acquired Swift Capital

8/10 – Coinbase raised $100M at $1.6B valuation
8/11 – Former SoFi employee raised Brandon Charles filed a lawsuit against the company alleging among other things that he witnessed sexual harassment in the workplace
8/14

• Prosper closed $500M securitization, announced $775M in Q2 loan originations, $41.4M net loss
• Bitcoin surged past $4,000

8/15 – iPayment announced the formation of its new merchant cash advance division, iPayment Capital
8/16 – Fifth Third Bank made another equity investment in ApplePie Capital, agreed to purchase loans through the company’s marketplace
8/19 – Former CFO of Credibly became president of Western Funding
8/22 – Former SoFi employees filed a lawsuit against the company over wage issues
8/23 – Ellevest raised $32.5M
8/24 – AutoFi raised $10M in Series A
8/25 – Rep. Maxine Waters called for a congressional hearing on SoFi’s bank charter application and ILC charters in general
8/29 – Snap Finance secured $100M credit facility
8/30

• IOU Financial announced Q2 originations of $26.2M (US) and a net loss of $2.08M (CAD)
• ShopKeep launched ShopKeep Capital, a merchant cash advance service

8/31 – Bizfi wound down operations, sold servicing rights to its $250M portfolio to Credibly
9/2 – Bitcoin surpassed $5,000
9/5 – Former Chief Sales Officer of OnDEck, Paul Rosen, joined CoverWallet as COO
9/6 – Square revealed that they would apply for an ILC charter, following in the footsteps of SoFi
9/7

• Former Director of External Sales at OnDeck, Jared Kogan, joined Pearl Capital as Chief Revenue Officer
• First Internet Bank announces strategic partnership with Lendeavor, Inc.

9/11

• SoFi CEO Mike Cagney announced he had resigned as board chairman and would be resigning as CEO later in the year
• Lenda raised $5.25M Series A

9/12

• Groundfloor announced $100M loan purchase agreement with Direct Access Capital
• Orchard unveiled its Deals platform
• JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon called Bitcoin a fraud for stupid people

9/13 – dv01 closed $5.5M Series A
9/14 – SmartBiz surpassed $500M in lifetime SBA loan originations
9/15

• Amid more negative press, SoFi CEO Mike Cagney announced he was resigning as CEO immediately
• Enova announced $25M share repurchase program

9/20 – World Business Lenders acquired strategic assets of Bizfi including the company’s brand and marketplace
9/22 – Prosper Marketplace raised $50M in a Series G round at a 70% lower valuation of $550M

See previous timelines:
5/17/17 – 7/11/17
4/6/17 – 5/16/17
2/17/17 – 4/5/17
12/16/16 – 2/16/17
9/27/16 – 12/16/16