funding

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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Milaap Raises 1.1M US$

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P2P microfinance service Milaap (see earlier coverage on P2P-Banking.com) raised 1.1 million US$ from Jungle Ventures (Singapore), Toivo Annus,Lionrock Capital, Jayesh Parekh and Unitus Seed Fund. The current round of funds will be utilized to expand engineering and marketing investments for enhancing the online product experience, and to invest in scaling up marketing and outreach efforts.

Milaap says that so far 100% of the microfinance loans originated have been paid back.

Ratesetter Raises 5M Funding – Valued at over 30M

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Ratesetter has raised 5 million GBP funding in June from existing shareholders, who include Peel Hunt founder Charles Peel, fund manager John Chatfeild-Roberts and Lazard chairman Ken Costa, plus a new Hong Kong-based investor. The founder Peter Behrens and Rhydian Lewis still own an almost 40% stake in the company which in this round had a valuation of more than 30 million GBP. Ratesetter, which aims to fund over 100 million GBP in p2p loans this year, reached break-even in January and will use the new capital to foster further growth.

(Source: Lucy Tobin, London Evening Standard, July 1st 2013)

Prosper Raises $20M from Sequoia; Appoints New CEO

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Prosper has raised 20 million US$ from Sequoia Capital. Prosper also announced it has appointed Stephan Vermut as Chief Executive Officer and member of the board of directors. Prospers management team is undergoing change after several persons left in December (e.g. David Silverman, Larry Cheng, Jeffrey Jacobs). The SEC recently approved Prospers new ProsperFunding LLC, a legal structure set up to offer bankruptcy protection for investors in the event of an bankruptcy of Prosper Marketplace Inc.

(Sources: press release & other)

Rothschild Invests into Zopa

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Rothschild, through its RIT Capital Ltd investment trust, invested into p2p lending service Zopa. Their VC fund Augmentum Capital has led a “multi-million pound” round which for Zopa is the series D round. Forward Venture Partners as well as previous backers Bessemer Venture Partners and Wellington Partners participated in the investment. Details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Sources: Financial Times, Techcrunch