funding

P2P Lending Service People Capital Gets More Funding

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People Capital, a p2p lending service for college students to obtain student loans via an online lending exchange, announced that it has closed a 500,000 US$ round of Series B funding. The Serious Change fund, helmed by investor Josh Mailman, led the round of financing. People Capital will use the funding to accelerate technological development of its peer-to-peer lending platform which will offer a unique solution for students to finance their college educations. This platform is poised to provide funding for students in the fall 2009-10 academic year. “We are delighted to welcome Serious Change as our new financial partner,” said Tom Shelton, CEO of People Capital. “With this financial commitment, we will continue to develop our proprietary lending technology which, when launched, will help students receive more favorable private student loans for high education needs.” “Although peer-to-peer lending technology is not new, we had been looking for a company that could bring the technology to the next level, one that offers a responsible alternative to students wishing to take out loans for college,” said Josh Mailman, head of Serious Change. “After extensive research, seeing the technology in action, and meeting company executives in person, we became convinced that People Capital presents by far the most exciting opportunity of companies in the peer-to-peer lending space.

(Source: press release)

A venture capitalist’s view on investing in peer to peer lending

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When a VC talks about peer to peer lending he is not talking about achieving a good ROI by lending to borrowers. He is talking about the chances he sees in investing in the p2p lending company.

Paul Jozefak, Managing Partner at Neuhaus Partners, did just that as a side note in an interview he gave ReadWriteWeb. Neuhaus Partner invested in the second VC funding round of German Smava.de six month ago.

In the interview Jozefak says, that:

  1. Smava is at the right time in the right place (current economic situation)
  2. he sees an upswing in lender and borrower interest; assesses that the model has proven itself
  3. Their competitors in the US are doing quite well and he expects that Prosper will resolve it’s issues with the SEC.

I agree with the first point, but in my view it is too early to judge whether the Smava model really has proven itself (even the oldest loans are only through two thirds of their loan term). And the last point, I find an optimistic assessment of the situation. One could say that Lending Club is doing well, but Prosper and Loanio are in a situation that could at least be described as challenging.

Lending Club receives 12 million US$ VC funding

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Lending Club announced today that they have closed another funding round. Excerpt from the press release:

… closed a $12 million Series B round of funding. Morgenthaler Ventures led the round and is joined by existing investors, Norwest Venture Partners and Canaan Partners. Rebecca Lynn, a Morgenthaler Principal, is joining Lending Club’s board of directors.

Lending Club also announced today that it has added Pamela Kramer as Chief Marketing Officer. Ms. Kramer is an established marketing veteran … . She was most recently Chief Marketing Officer of MarketTools, Inc and, before that, spent 9 years in leadership roles with E*TRADE Financial … .

Comunitae gets 2 million Euro funding

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Comunitae gets 2 million Euro funding from Entrinnova to establish itself as a p2p lending service in Spain.

Comunitae will allow loans between 3,000 and 15,000 Euro for loan terms of 1 to 3 years. The amount that lenders can lend will be up to 50,000 Euro (minimum 50 Euro). Only residents of Spain will be able to use the platform.

Founded by José Miguel Rotaeche and Arturo Cervera, both ex-bankers at BBVA, Comunitae aims to launch in mid 2009. The name is derived from “Comuni” for a group of persons and the spanish abbreviation “TAE” for interest rates.

(via Loogic.com)

Nexx – P2P lending for Kiwis – gets 600,000 NZ$ in funding

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No, not talking about fruits or birds here. Nexx.co.nz develops a p2p lending service in New Zealand. Nexx now succeeded in raising 600,000 NZ$ (approx 330.000 US$). Quite an achievement in the surrounding conditions of the credit crunch.

Nexx, an on-line social lending business being developed by four young entrepreneurs at business growth centre The ICEHOUSE, has raised $600,000 in funding from a group of angel investors including the ICE Angels, Venture Accelerator from Nelson and Sparkbox.

Nexx co-founder Ben Milsom says the funding will pay for development and promotion of the business which is currently awaiting regulatory approval. Milsom and his partners Glenn Riddell, James Wallace and Mark Catley expect to be able to launch their operation in early 2009.

The Nexx team started in 2007 and won the University of Auckland Business School’s Spark Entrepreneurship Challenge in September 2007. The prize was 20,000 NZ$ in seed funding and a nine-month tenancy in the Icehouse business incubator.
Ben Milsom, writes about the pre-launch process of Nexx at the Startup-Blog.

Nexx is developed based on an open-source ERP and accounting package Adempiere.

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