Canadian CommunityLend receives $2.5M VC funding

December 15, 2007 wiseclerk

CommunityLend.com, which strives to be the first peer to peer lending service launching in Canada, has secured 2.5 million dollar venture capital. Furthermore CommunityLend announced winning Barry Campbell, former MP and Secretary to the Minister of Finance and Jim Jones, CEO of GMAC Residential Capital as additional directors.

In an email Co-Founder and CTO Colin Henderson told P2P-Banking.com: "… We have relaunched our site, as we move towards launch in early 08. The key aspects of this milestone for us, is securing our funding, appointment of our management team, and appointing our Board of Directors. From here we will move towards launch in early 08. "

Quoted from the CommunityLend website:

Share in the Rewards of Investing in People
The unsecured consumer loan marketplace in Canada exceeds $100 Billion in volume every year and generates interest payments on those loans exceeding $15 Billion annually. By definition, “unsecured” loans are often small loans used for purposes like funding a wedding or paying off high interest credit card debt and for which the lender has not taken security to support the loan.
Today in Canada, this very profitable industry is also a very closed industry, with only a handful of major companies involved. This means that a very small list of banks and credit cards companies are literally today the sole beneficiaries of one of this country’s most profitable industries.
CommunityLend intends to democratize lending in Canada by opening up this billion dollar industry to other Lenders interested in participating. Share the wealth, we like to say!

Update on Lendingclub launch

May 25, 2007May 30, 2007 wiseclerk

Following up on my earlier post regarding the LendingClub launch read Colin Henderson's view on this. Furthermore in this blog it says (without giving sources):

For the moment, the site is only accessible through Facebook, but will eventually be available to the public.

CommunityLend to offer p2p lending in Canada

March 23, 2007May 30, 2007 wiseclerk

CommunityLend.com has announced the start of p2p lending in Canada on the site in fall 2007 enabling person to person lending without a bank as the middlemen, thereby eliminating banking fees. It promises lenders higher returns and borrowers lower interest rates and flexible payment options on loans. It aims to 'revolutionize the way lending works in Canada'.

Earlier it will launch a working pre-view which allow users to test drive the site without using real money. CommunityLend expects useful user feedback during this work preview which it plans to use to enhance the site until the launch date.

CommunityLend is driven by an impressive team which includes Michael Garrity (Founder and President), ex-Bank of Montreal exec and BankWatch blogger Colin Henderson and John Philip Green, currently Director of Engineering at Affinity Labs and Co-Founder of of Savvica and Rapleaf.

CommunityLend profits as it can pick the best form the existing models (Prosper, Zopa). It will not just replicate one site. Few is known about the plans, but the announcement states that Community Lend will include auctions and groups (as does Prosper) as well as selectable paypack periods (as does Zopa).

Sources: p2p-kredite.com and others

P.S.: If you blog about this a link back here would be appreciated. Thank you!

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