Articles by deBanked Staff
Catching Up With Online Lending – A Timeline
October 21, 20177/17
- 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
Major Online Consumer Lenders Ranked By Revenue
October 17, 2017The below chart ranks several well known online consumer lenders by revenue over the last 5 years. The data is primarily drawn from reports submitted to the Inc. 5000 list, public earnings statements, or published media reports. An asterisk indicates an approximation.
| Company | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 |
| loanDepot | $1,296,453,643 | $922,359,827 | $538,087,552 | ||
| Elevate Credit (ELVT) | $580,441,000 | $434,006,000 | 274,000,000 | $72,000,000 | |
| Lending Club (LC) | $500,800,000 | $430,000,000 | $213,400,000 | $98,002,000 | $33,800,000 |
| Avant | $437,929,000 | $300,000,000* | $75,000,000 | ||
| SoFi | $350,000,000* | $114,700,000 | |||
| Prosper Marketplace | $136,005,000 | $204,275,000 | $81,317,000 | $18,381,000 | $6,807,527 |
Payday Lending King Scott Tucker Convicted
October 14, 2017
One year after a federal judge awarded a record-setting $1.3 billion judgment to the FTC against Scott Tucker for damages caused by his payday lending empire, a jury in the Southern District of New York found him guilty on criminal charges that include participating in a racketeering enterprise through the collection of unlawful debt, wire fraud, money laundering, and violations of the Truth In Lending Act.
Tucker and another defendant, who happened to be his attorney in the scheme, are set to be sentenced on January 5th. He will remain on house arrest until then. Tucker is facing more than 20 years in prison. He is 55.
Among the luxuries Tucker spent his ill-gotten gains on were his professional racing hobby. His auto racing team, Level 5 Motorsports, participated in international tournaments and won 4 championships. The feds auctioned off his race cars that included two Ferraris and a Porsche earlier this year.
According to the DOJ:
TUCKER devised a scheme to claim that his lending businesses were protected by sovereign immunity, a legal doctrine that, among other things, generally prevents states from enforcing their laws against Native American tribes. Beginning in 2003, TUCKER entered into agreements with several Native American tribes (the “Tribes”), including the Santee Sioux Tribe of Nebraska, the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, and the Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma. The purpose of these agreements was to cause the Tribes to claim they owned and operated parts of TUCKER’s payday lending enterprise, so that when states sought to enforce laws prohibiting TUCKER’s loans, TUCKER’s lending businesses would claim to be protected by sovereign immunity.
At trial, the jury wasn’t fooled. Read the full DOJ report here.
The Sept/Oct 2017 Issue of deBanked Magazine Has Shipped
October 12, 2017The latest issue of deBanked Magazine has shipped. In this issue we explore a new rule implemented by credit bureaus surrounding the reporting of liens and judgments, the shifting landscape for lead generators, and once again, what merchants themselves are saying about their experiences with online loans and merchant cash advances. There’s a lot more of course!!!
If you’re already subscribed, you should receive a copy soon. If you haven’t subscribed, you can make sure to get all future issues FREE by SIGNING UP HERE
Online Lender Pave Returns As Decentralized Credit Bureau
October 11, 2017Online lender Pave, which stopped making loans in June, is coming back as a decentralized credit bureau, according to their website.
“One of the key benefits of Pave’s new product is the decentralized and encrypted storage of individuals’ financial data in the blockchain,” a Pave press release published on Tuesday said.
Pave also plans to have a token sale in mid-October.
—
You should read this bulletin from the SEC about token sales
Updates On Several Industry Court Cases
October 4, 2017Curious to know the status of industry court cases we’ve reported on? Here’s an update on several:
| Case | When filed | Where pending | Status |
| Yellowstone Capital LLC and EBF Partners, LLC v. Corporate Bailout, LLC, Mark D. Guidubaldi & Associates, LLC dba Protection Legal Group, PLG Servicing, LLC, American Funding Group, Coast to Coast Funding, LLC, ROC Funding Group, LLC, ROC South LLC, and Mark Mancino. | 9/27/17 | New York State Supreme Court | Complaint filed. No anwswer filed yet |
| Sean Pullen, Christina Cane, Michael Cane, Michael Carrera, Matthew Taylor, and Yulia Zamaora v Social Finance, Inc. and Does 1-50 | 8/14/17 | Superior Court of California | SoFi filed an answer to the complaint on 9/15 |
| Craig Cunningham v. Mark D. Guidubaldi & Associates, LLC dba Protection Legal Group, and Corporate Bailout, LLC, Sanford J. Feder Esq, Mark D. Guidubaldi, Esq, Cashflow Care, LLC | 5/10/17 | Northern District of Texas | Motion for default judgment filed against Corporate Bailout on 9/12/17. Defendant never responded |
| Natures Market Corp v. Creditors Relief | 4/28/17 | New York State Supreme Court | Creditors Relief’s motion to dismiss and sanctions are still pending |
| Pearl Gamma Funding, LLC and Pearl Beta Funding, LLC v. Creditors Relief, LLC | 11/16/16 | New York State Supreme Court | Pearl has moved to dismiss Creditors Relief’s counterclaims |
| United States v. Sergiy Bezrukov | 10/26/16 | Western District of New York | The criminal indictment was amended on 8/3/17 to add more charges. Bezrukov is facing up to 30 years in prison |
| Ronald Bethune, on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated v. Lendingclub Corporation;WebBank, Steel Partners Holdings, L.P.; The Lending Club Members Trust; and does 1 through 10, inclusive | 4/6/16 | Southern District of New York | The judge granted the defendants motion to compel arbitration on Jan 30, 2017 |
| Kalamata Capital LLC v. Biz2Credit, Inc. and Itria Ventures, LLC | 12/8/14 | New York State Supreme Court | Kalamata plans to amend the complaint and the Court is scheduled to decide on the debate over whether certain documents should be sealed from public view |
| Federal Trade Commission v. AMG Services, Inc., et al. | 4/2/12 | District of Nevada | $1.3 billion judgment entered. Company owner Scott Tucker is also currently being tried criminally in the Southern District of New York for ill-gotten profits related to his payday lending empire. The jury is expected to decide the outcome this month |
Get Your Free Hard Copy of deBanked Magazine
October 2, 2017
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deBanked to Attend FundKite ISO Event at Met Life Stadium Nov. 2nd
September 29, 2017
It’s unlikely the New York Jets will be dreaming of the Super Bowl come November 2nd when they play the Buffalo Bills, but MCA company FundKite is hosting a VIP event for select ISOs/brokers at Met Life Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ that day.
According to FundKite, sales reps that hit certain funding targets will be invited to join the actual football players on the field for the pre-game warmup. The company is also offering attendees 50-yard line seats and complimentary food and beverages.
The catch is that reps have to fund more than $150,000 or $300,000 with FundKite before October 26th. Reps outside the Tri-State area will be flown in, courtesy of the company.
deBanked’s Sean Murray will be in attendance.
For more information, contact FundKite at isorelations@fundkite.com
