Announcements
Lendio Announces First-of-Its-Kind Marketplace Lending Franchise Program
March 1, 2017Lendio, the nation’s leading marketplace for small business loans, today announced it is expanding the reach and availability of its small business lending options with the launch of a new franchise program.
The Lendio franchise program complements the company’s core value of helping small business owners fuel the American Dream. Through this program, franchise owners across the country can ease the financial hurdles for small businesses in their local community. Lendio franchisees get access to Lendio’s marketplace and technology, comprehensive training, branded marketing tools and national advertising, partnerships, and access to Lendio’s franchise support team to help coach small business owners through the lending process.
“We are thrilled to extend the availability of our online loan marketplace through our franchisees to an even broader group of small businesses who may not have been aware of the range of loan options available to them,” said Brock Blake, CEO and founder of Lendio. “With 80 percent of small business loan applications being rejected by traditional banks, now more than ever, small business owners need access to various sources of funding. Having a local presence will help bridge the awareness and trust gap for small business owners, helping borrowers position themselves and their companies for a great future.”
Ben Davis, Chief Franchising Officer at Lendio, will lead the franchise program. Together, Lendio and Davis will expand the company’s local presence and offer services to a new segment of small business owners through local franchisees, bringing options, speed and trust to Main Street, the backbone of America’s economy, in a way that has never been done before.
“Lendio’s investment in franchising meets the classic definition of an organization putting its money where its mouth is,” Davis said. “To Lendio’s already powerful online marketplace, Lendio franchisees bring a wealth of knowledge about local businesses and their capital requirements. They are connected to their communities and uniquely driven to build great neighborhoods and strong local economies.”
Lendio helps small business owners find working capital through its online platform. With a network of over 75 lenders offering multiple loan products, Lendio’s marketplace matches small business owners with various loan options. Today’s announcement comes on the heels of Lendio announcing an 87 percent annual increase of loans originated through its platform, which has facilitated more than $240 million in loans to date.
Lendio currently has franchisees in five territories, with significant interest in many others. Partners Kyle Bohrer and Bryan Gealy, in Erie, Pennsylvania, joined Lendio as the first franchise owners. Bohrer has been in the small/mid-sized business marketplace for over 10 years. Located in the Great Lakes region, Bohrer has been working on saving Erie small business owners money on their shipping. By becoming a Lendio franchisee, they are able to support businesses with their financing needs and help their community turn the corner economically.
“We will consult with potential customers looking to create new businesses and ones looking to expand, grow or just stay afloat,” Bohrer said. “Erie is my hometown, so becoming a Lendio franchisee allows local small business owners to work with someone in their community who knows their needs, challenges and potential opportunities.”
For more information about Lendio’s franchise program, visit: https://www.lendio.com/franchise.
About Lendio
Lendio is a free online service that helps business owners find the right small business loans within minutes. The center of small business lending, our passion is fueling the American Dream by uniting the small business loan industry and bringing all options together in one place, from short-term specialty financing to long-term low-interest traditional loans. Our technology makes small business lending simple, decreasing the amount of time and effort it takes to secure funding. More information about Lendio is available at http://www.lendio.com.
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Prosper Marketplace Closes Loan Purchase Agreement for up to $5 Billion of Loans with Consortium of Institutional Investors
February 27, 2017SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Prosper Marketplace, a leading online consumer lending marketplace, today announced that it has closed a deal with a consortium of institutional investors to purchase up to $5 billion worth of loans through the Prosper platform over the next 24 months. The investors in the consortium are affiliates of each of New Residential Investment Corp., Jefferies Group LLC and Third Point LLC, and an entity of which Soros Fund Management LLC serves as principal investment manager. The consortium will also earn an equity stake in the company based on the amount of loans purchased, further aligning the group with Prosper’s future growth and success. Warehouse financing of up to $1 billion will be provided by a syndicate of lenders including Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.
“We’re very pleased to be working with this consortium of investors, and believe they will be great long-term partners as we continue to build a large-scale business,” said David Kimball, CEO, Prosper Marketplace. “This deal gives us the funding stability and additional capital markets expertise we need to continue to grow our marketplace and achieve profitability in 2017.”
Prosper has maintained positive momentum since the second half of 2016, with monthly loan originations growing steadily since July. In addition, the Prosper loan portfolio is delivering solid returns to its institutional and individual investors, with an estimated net return of 7.86%
Financial Technology Partners (FT Partners) served as strategic advisor to Prosper Marketplace and its Board of Directors on this transaction. DV01 will be the loan data agent to the consortium.
About Prosper Marketplace
Prosper’s mission is to advance financial well-being. The company’s online lending platform connects people who want to borrow money with individuals and institutions that want to invest in consumer credit. Borrowers get access to affordable fixed-rate, fixed-term personal loans, and investors have the opportunity to earn attractive returns via a data-driven underwriting model. To date, over $8 billion in personal loans have been originated through the Prosper platform for debt consolidation and large purchases such as home improvement projects, medical expenses and special occasions.
Prosper launched in 2006 and is headquartered in San Francisco. The lending platform is owned by Prosper Funding LLC, a subsidiary of Prosper Marketplace. Loans originated through the Prosper marketplace are made by WebBank, member FDIC. Visit www.prosper.com and follow @Prosperloans to learn more. Prosper notes offered by Prospectus.
1 Estimated return on January 2017 production is 7.86% according to the Prosper Performance Update: January 2017
Contacts
Prosper Marketplace:
Sarah Cain, 415-593-5474
scain@prosper.com
AutoFi Unveils Online Multi-Lender Sales Solution for Used Car Dealers
February 27, 2017SAN FRANCISCO, CA (February 27th, 2017) – Today AutoFi, a financial technology company that is transforming the way cars are bought and sold, announced the launch of the first fully online sales and multi-lender financing solution for used car dealers. Financing on AutoFi’s platform will be provided by its lender network of banks, speciality lenders, and credit unions. Today, the company announced that its credit union financing will be offered in partnership with iLendingDIRECT.
- “People want buying a car to be fast, straight forward and more transparent. That’s why AutoFi is working with lenders and dealerships to make the process easier through online sales and financing.” said Kevin Singerman, CEO of AutoFi. “That’s why I’m so excited about our partnership with iLendingDIRECT. Bringing iLendingDIRECT’s network of credit unions onto the AutoFi platform means consumers will have even more competitive financing options to choose from when purchasing a car online.
- “This is the perfect e-commerce solution to get customers the auto financing they need and want in a quick and efficient manner, and enhance their car-buying experience,” said Nancy Fitzgerald, President and CEO of iLendingDIRECT.
The AutoFi platform is the first online point-of-sale solution for auto finance. It allows customers to purchase and finance a car completely online, either through a dealer’s website or an in-store digital experience. The company recently announced the world’s first online car sales and financing solution for new car dealers in partnership with Ford Motor Credit. Today’s announcement further expands AutoFi’s ability to serve the multi-billion-dollar used car sales market through its partnership with iLendingDirect.
AutoFi’s platform will now allow used car buyers to research a vehicle on the dealership’s website; select “Buy Now”; receive an automated credit decision; and get loan offers from banks, specialty lenders and iLendingDIRECT’s credit union network who compete for the car buyer’s business in real time. Consumers can then customize their financing deal by selecting down payment and loan terms; choose vehicle protection products; and e-sign all financing documents online. The new platform gives used car dealers and buyers the ability to transact online with competitive financing options in a fully automated process.
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About AutoFi
AutoFi is a technology company transforming the way cars are bought and sold. The company’s platform allows auto dealers to sell cars completely online by connecting buyers with lenders in a fast, easy and transparent process. AutoFi’s team includes industry leaders from enterprise software, finance, automobile and consumer sectors who previously worked at companies including Lending Club, PayPal, and SunGard. AutoFi’s investors include Ford Motor Credit Company, Crosslink Capital, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Laconia Capital Group, Basset Investment Group, Eniac Ventures, 500 Startups and Silicon Valley Bank. For more information visit www.autofi.com
About iLendingDIRECT
iLendingDIRECT is a national Finance and Insurance marketing firm that focuses on Auto Refinancing. We offer smart financial solutions with the customers’ well‐being in mind – committed to setting our customers up for success by saving them money and educating them about what is best for their particular financial situation. For more information on iLendingDIRECT services, visit www.ilendingdirect.com.
Bond Street Announces Renewal of Loan Purchase Agreement with Jefferies
February 15, 2017NEW YORK (February 15, 2017) — Bond Street, a leading online small business lender, announced the closing of a loan-purchase agreement with Jefferies that renews Jefferies’ prior loan-purchase agreement and expands the size of its loan purchases up to as much as $300 million. This agreement will facilitate Bond Street’s growth and help thousands of small businesses across the country access fair and affordable financing.
“Jefferies has been an outstanding partner and shares our vision for reinventing financial services through technology, data and design,” said David Haber, CEO & Co-Founder of Bond Street. “Jefferies’ continued loan purchases will expand our ability to support entrepreneurs at every stage of their growth cycle.”
Bond Street’s technology and extensive expertise in credit and risk management has enabled the platform to scale, while delivering both a superior customer experience to entrepreneurs and market-leading returns to investors. As a result of this exceptional track record, Bond Street has broadened its term product to include loans ranging from $10,000 to $1 million—a significant expansion from its original $50,000 to $500,000. Bond Street now offers the widest term loan range in the alternative lending industry.
“Supporting entrepreneurs beyond the transaction is the cornerstone upon which we build our technology,” said Peyton Sherwood, CTO & Co-Founder of Bond Street. “We aspire not only to provide seamless access to capital, but also to serve as a proactive financial partner to our customers. Through deep integrations into financial software platforms, we automate financial analysis during underwriting, and programmatically monitor the health of our portfolio over time – surfacing key insights and risks to help our customers succeed.”
Bond Street has raised over $400 million in lending capital since its founding. They are backed by leading investors such as Spark Capital and Homebrew, as well as individual investors including Nathan Blecharczyk (Co-Founder and CTO of Airbnb) and David Chang (Chef/Owner of momofuku).
About Bond Street
Bond Street is revolutionizing small business lending through technology, data, and design. Bond Street provides entrepreneurs access to simple and fair financing to sustain their long-term business growth. Bond Street offers one to three year term loans ranging from $10,000 to $1,000,000 with interest rates starting at 6%. Headquartered in New York, Bond Street was founded, in 2013, by David Haber and Peyton Sherwood. For more information, please visit www.bondstreet.com.
About Jefferies
Jefferies, the world’s only independent full-service global investment banking firm focused on serving clients for over 50 years, is a leader in providing insight, expertise and execution to investors, companies and governments. Our firm provides a full range of investment banking, sales, trading, research and strategy across the spectrum of equities, fixed income and foreign exchange, as well as wealth management, in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Jefferies Group LLC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Leucadia National Corporation (NYSE: LUK), a diversified holding company.
Lendio Announces Record Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year in 2016, Executive Promotions
February 8, 2017Lendio, the nation’s leading marketplace for small business loans, today announced that it helped facilitate more than $70 million in financing through its marketplace of more than 75 small business lenders during Q4 2016. The figure represents a 68 percent increase in loans originated through the Lendio platform over Q4 2015. In the last fiscal year, Lendio facilitated more than $240 million in funding, a 87 percent increase over 2015.
The company also announced the promotions of Jim Granat to president and chief revenue officer and Trent Miskin to chief growth officer. Granat formerly served as chief operating officer and Miskin as chief technology officer.
Q4 Highlights:
- Lendio raised $20 million in funding led by Comcast Ventures and Stereo Capital
- More than 3,300 small businesses funded in Q4, including in all 50 states
- Record number of repeat customers – 111 percent year-over-year deal growth from Q4 2015
- Added six new lenders to its marketplace, including: FundingCircle, Able Lending, and Internex
“We are extremely pleased to report a strong year-end performance and look forward to continued success in the months and years to come,” said Brock Blake, founder and CEO of Lendio. “These robust numbers put us in an even better position to help small business owners acquire funding. Looking ahead, we will continue to focus on investing in a superior customer experience, loan application automation, efficient processes and talented personnel that will help simplify small business lending.”
Lendio’s financial performance is the result of helping small business owners across the U.S. gain access to capital. Becca Grider and Lindie Royall of Little Poppy Co., a bow subscription for little girls, needed funding to manage the rapid growth of their company (20 percent month over month). “We started looking online at different options for funding and quickly realized that Lendio was our best choice,” Royall said. “We submitted our information online, they contacted us and showed us our different loan options. We got $75,000 through alternative lending, and because we now have the money on hand, it will help us keep our growth going.”
About Lendio
Lendio is a free online service that helps business owners find the right small business loans within minutes. The center of small business lending, our passion is fueling the American Dream by uniting the small business loan industry and bringing all options together in one place, from short-term specialty financing to long-term low-interest traditional loans. Our technology makes small business lending simple, decreasing the amount of time and effort it takes to secure funding. More information about Lendio is available at http://www.lendio.com.
Prosper Marketplace Appoints Usama Ashraf Chief Financial Officer
February 1, 2017
SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Prosper Marketplace announced today it has appointed Usama Ashraf as Chief Financial Officer. As CFO, Ashraf will oversee the company’s capital markets function, as well as all of the company’s finance activities. As head of the Capital Markets team, he will be responsible for expanding the company’s funding sources by bringing new investors onto the Prosper lending platform.
Ashraf brings more than 18 years of experience spanning corporate finance and global capital markets, including funding, securitization, financial reporting, planning, investor relations, balance sheet management, strategy, and mergers and acquisitions. He has held senior leadership positions at prominent financial services companies, most recently as Deputy Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer at Annaly Capital Management and Corporate Treasurer at USAA. Ashraf will start his new position at Prosper Marketplace on February 27.
“We’re thrilled to have someone with Usama’s experience and track record in finance and global capital markets join our team,” said David Kimball, CEO, Prosper Marketplace. “Usama will be instrumental in bringing new institutional investors onto the Prosper platform, including banks, as we continue to grow the platform in 2017.”
“I’ve watched the online lending industry with keen interest over the past year, and I have been impressed with Prosper’s resiliency and commitment to innovation,” said Ashraf. “I am a strong believer in Prosper’s mission to advance financial well-being, and I look forward to working closely with David and the Prosper team to take the business to the next level.”
Prior to joining USAA, Ashraf spent 13 years in the Treasury and Corporate M&A departments of CIT Group, most recently serving as Deputy Treasurer with responsibility for the firm’s Treasury activities in the U.S. Previously, he worked in the Investment Banking Division of Salomon Smith Barney/Citigroup focused on M&A. Ashraf received a BS in Economics with concentrations in Finance and Accounting from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
About Prosper
Prosper’s mission is to advance financial well-being. The company’s online lending platform connects people who want to borrow money with individuals and institutions that want to invest in consumer credit. Borrowers get access to affordable fixed-rate, fixed-term personal loans, and investors have the opportunity to earn attractive returns via the platform’s data-driven underwriting model. To date, Prosper has originated over $8 billion in personal loans for debt consolidation and large purchases such as home improvement projects, medical expenses and special occasions. The award-winning Prosper Daily app offers essential tools to help people manage their financial wellness every day.
Prosper launched in 2006 and is headquartered in San Francisco. The lending platform is owned by Prosper Funding LLC, and Prosper Daily is owned by BillGuard Inc., both subsidiaries of Prosper Marketplace. Visit www.prosper.com and follow @Prosperloans on Twitter to learn more.
Contacts
Prosper Marketplace
Sarah Cain, 415-593-5474
scain@prosper.com
Former CIO of the CFPB and FinTech Entrepreneur Joins FinMkt’s Advisory Board
January 31, 2017New York City-based FinMkt, a leading provider of marketplace technology solutions for the financial services industry, today announced the addition of Tim Duncan, a seasoned financial technology entrepreneur and innovative leader, to its Advisory Board. Tim brings an impressive roster of experience, including serving on the executive launch team for the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as its Head of Technology and CIO. Tim will advise FinMkt’s management team on strategy and product development
Tim’s expertise and experience combine technology, finance, and law. In the late 1990s, he founded a startup that pioneered the use of the Internet to deliver market data, research, and news to senior executives, analysts, and investment managers, and later sold the company to Thomson Reuters. He then served as President of Thomson Interactive, where he was responsible for leading the digital transformation of the $5 billion global data and information company and spearheaded the initial design and development of ThomsonOne, a digital platform that generated hundreds of millions in revenue.
Tim then served as a government and public policy advisor, working closely with then Governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney. He also founded and led the American Business Leaders for Financial Reform in support of the Dodd–Frank Act and worked closely with Elizabeth Warren on strategic outreach and communication to the business community. Tim participated in the review, drafting, and negotiation sessions on the text of Dodd–Frank legislation and was present when President Obama signed the Dodd–Frank Act into law.
Tim was recruited by Elizabeth Warren, then Special Assistant to the President of the United States, to join the executive team tasked with launching the CFPB on time and on budget. As Head of Technology and CIO, Tim led technology strategy, planning, and implementation for this inaugural federal agency in the digital age with a budget of $500 million. Under his leadership, the agency implemented an agile, lean process to document, budget, approve, and prioritize technology projects and also became the first federal agency to utilize scalable commercial cloud services while increasing staff from 50 to 500 in an 18-month period.
Tim’s most recent endeavor has been as recipient of a Ford Foundation grant to develop and launch a national social impact project enabling low- and moderate-income families to practice better financial decision-making toward homeownership.
Commenting on Tim’s impressive record as an entrepreneur, technologist, and innovative leader, FinMkt CEO Luan Cox stated: “ We are thrilled to have Tim join the team. His deep passion and experience for fintech and the online lending space will help FinMkt continue our rapid growth .“
About FinMkt
With offices in New York City and Hyderabad, FinMkt provides best-in-class, customizable online marketplace technology for the global financial services industry. We help organizations rapidly deploy marketplace solutions in a timely, cost-efficient manner while ensuring the highest quality technology and client support. From customer acquisition to product matching to tracking and reporting, our secure, patent-pending technology solutions are the gold standard of the financial marketplace ecosystem. FinMkt’s industry-leading platform and applications drive innovation, accelerate processes, and expand opportunities for growth in the financial services arena. For more information, please visit us at http://finmkt.io/ or email us at info@finmkt.io.
Introducing LendingRobot Series: One-Stop Investing in Alternative Lending
January 26, 2017January 26, 2017 – Seattle, WA – LendingRobot, the first robo-advisor for Alternative Lending built for individual investors, announced today the launch of robo-fund LendingRobot Series. Designed as an alternative to traditional fixed income investments, LendingRobot Series is a one-stop solution that combines cloud-based investment automation, fully transparent fund secured by Blockchain technology and sophisticated machine learning algorithms to provide superior, predictable returns uncorrelated to stock market performance.
LendingRobot Series is a unique combination of a robo-advisor and an investment fund, created as one-stop solution for accredited investors looking for a way to easily invest in consumer, small business or real-estate loans diversified across multiple ‘peer lending’ origination platforms.
“Alternative lending proved to return excellent performance and with new origination platforms growing quickly comes the opportunity to diversify further. But fragmentation makes investing even more complex for individual investors” said Emmanuel Marot, CEO of LendingRobot.
Unlike a traditional fund, LendingRobot Series improves liquidity, is flexible with regards to loan selection, and 100% transparent. Investors decide what kind of risk and time horizon they want, and LendingRobot automatically manages their investments.
Hedge Funds typically charge management fees of 2% plus 20% of performance, plus obscure or unlimited fund expenses, which makes their expense ratio disproportionate to fixed income returns. In contrast with traditional investment firms, LendingRobot Series only charges 1.00% of assets under management, and caps fund expenses at 0.59%.
“Turmoil within the past twelve months among some of the largest origination platforms showed that ‘platform risk’ is real, and left many clients increasingly worried about investing only in unsecured consumer loans despite the fact that the returns have remained steady,” continued Mr. Marot. “All investors would be well served by diversifying into multiple marketplaces, but that process is tedious, complicated, and requires a high degree of domain expertise to accomplish correctly. That’s why we’ve created LendingRobot Series: to provide investors that understand the value of investing in Alternative Lending with the confidence that comes from intelligent automation, easy liquidity, and complete transparency.”
LendingRobot manages investments across four different Series, with target maturity going from 20 to 36 months, and net returns up to 9.66%. Investor’s money is converted in Units of ownership in these Series, that are issued on a weekly basis. By default, loans payments keep being re-invested and the Units value increases. LendingRobot publishes every week a detailed ledger of its holdings, down to the value and individual payments made by each note.
A ‘Hash code’ signature of the ledger is integrated in the subsequent versions as well as notarized in Ethereum’s Blockchain to ensure the data is tamper-proof.
To ensure maximum safety, assets are hold in a bankruptcy protection vehicle, with no other liabilities than its investors.
Investors willing to cash simply flip a switch on the LendingRobot website to start redeeming their Units on a weekly basis. Between 33% and 100% of loan payments are distributed in priority for redemption, which means that under normal circumstances investors should be able to cash out entirely in less than 3 weeks.
Investors interested in learning more about LendingRobot Series can visit www.lendingrobot.com/series.
About LendingRobot:
LendingRobot is a fully automated investment service for alternative lending platforms including Lending Club, Prosper and Funding Circle. After signing up for a LendingRobot account, investors select their risk tolerance and enable LendingRobot to instantly make investments on their behalf. Based in Seattle, Washington, LendingRobot serves 6,500 clients totaling over $120M in assets.
