Prosper Raises $25M Round Led by Sequoia Capital and Blackrock

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Prosper Marketplace announced yesterday that it has raised 25 million US$ in additional funding to accelerate the company’s growth . The round, which was led by existing partner Sequoia Capital, also includes a new investment by Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager, as well as a broad representation of existing investors.

Since bringing on a new management team in January 2013, the Prosper platform has achieved growth in its monthly loan originations, rising from $9 million in January to $32 million in August.

This round came pretty quick after the last 20 million US$ round in January.

Source: Prosper press release

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P2P Lending Loan Volumes in August 2013

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P2P Lending volumes have grown again in August. I do monitor development of p2p lending figures for many markets. Since I already have most of the data on file I can publish statistics on the monthly loan originations for selected p2p lending services. This time there are two more services listed than last month.

Table: P2P Lending Volumes in August 2013. Source: own research
Note that volumes have been converted from local currency to US$ for the sake of comparision. Some figures are estimates/approximations.

Notice to p2p lending services not listed:
If you want to be included in this chart in future, please email the following figures on the first working day of a month: total loan volume originated since inception, loan volume originated in previous month, number of loans originated in previous month, average nominal interest rate of loans originated in previous month.

My Isepankur Investment After 11 Months

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Three months have passed since I last wrote about the status of my p2p lending investment at Isepankur. I have deposited 8,000 Euro (approx. 10,500 US$) since starting in the end of 2012. I hold over 500 loan parts – the diversification achieved is very good. Together the loans add up to 9,190 Euro outstanding principal. Loans in the value of 248 Euro are overdue, meaning they (partly) missed one or two repayments. 149 Euro are in loans that are more than 60 days late. I already received 2,320 Euro in repaid principal back (which I reinvested).

Chart 1: Screenshot of loan status

Most of the money in my account is working to earn interest. Only 30 Euro are currently held in cash. 5 Euro are tied in a bid on a current loan listing and will originate in the next few days.


Chart 2: Screenshot of account balance

Return of Invest

Currently Isepankur shows me a 26.7% annual ROI (see chart 3 ). In my own calculations, using XIRR in Excel, I currently get a 23.5% ROI. Continue reading →

Auxmoney Changes Display Rules for Credit Scores

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P2P lending service Auxmoney changed its TOS today. Auxmoney will make display of pulled credit scores mandatory (there are 3 score types obtained from different bureaus). In the past the display of credit scores was optional and borrowers could decide, if they want them in their listing. In fact borrowers could decide to remove credit scores from their loan listing should they consider a low score to hurt funding chances.

In practise only loan applications with displayed scores had realistic funding chances in the past – over 90% of the funded loans had at least one credit score information (see chart). But this is still a positive step, offering more transparency for lenders and allowing easier comparision of the over 2,000 open loan listings.

Zopa Discontinues 1 Year Loans

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Zopa stopped accepting applications for 1 year p2p loans today and now concentrates on 2-5 year loan terms.

…we’ve stopped accepting applications for 1 year loans.

We introduced 1 year loans at the start of the year, with the expectation that they would become a strong channel for new loans and provide good returns to savers.  We have found that a large number of customers have now come to us applying for 1 year loans, but unfortunately we approve comparatively few of them and for the time being we believe it is ultimately better for savers to bring in more applicants for 2-5 year loans (which are much more popular choices of loan length) than continue to assess 1 year applicants.

Afluenta – P2P Lending in Argentina

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Afluenta is a p2p lending service operating in Argentina. It has been reporting growth since its launch in September 2012. Afluenta offers loan terms of 1, 2 or 3 years. APRs are in the range of 35 to 50%. “We are more competitive than banks because we are faster, more economic and make a difference in quality. Our technology let us screen a prospect in 15 seconds and answer 85% of loan applications immediately, while it takes days or even weeks for banks to do so” Alejandro Cosentino, founder and CEO of Afluenta told P2P-Banking.com.