Despite bailing them out (and practically owning some of them), the UK government seems unable to force high street banks to begin lending to small businesses again and this is causing a big problem for the economy — the wheels of capitalism won’t grease themselves. The latest solution coming out of the Department for Business Innovation & Skills is to board the P2P lending train.
The UK… → Read More
Zopa, the oldest of P2P lending sites, certainly in the UK, has announced that it’s raised a new “multi-million pound” round led by Augmentum Capital, the VC fund backed by RIT Capital. That the company isn’t being more specific with the figure, however, suggests that it may not have reached the heights of its previous C Round, which CrunchBase pegs at $12.9m. It also comes at a time when the UK… → Read More
RateSetter, the UK peer-to-peer lending site that competes with Zopa and, less directly, Funding Circle, has announced that it has seen £1 million lent through its platform since the site launched just two months ago. That’s a fairly big number, although perhaps a reflection of the lousy interest rates offered by high street banks at the moment and the hard times people are facing. → Read More
Funding Circle is a newly launched peer-to-peer lending site in the UK with a number of heavy-weight backers including Andy Homer, Chief Executive of Towergate Partnership, and Jon Moulton, the founder of private equity firm Better Capital and former managing partner of Alchemy Partners.
A sort of Zopa-for-small businesses, the ‘social lending platform’ facilitates loans to SMEs instead of… → Read More
Good news for P2P lending and trading platform Prosper as it concludes its 9-month hiatus during which it was not allowed to continue its loan operations in the United States.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is now greenlighting Prosper to facilitate peer-to-peer lending in 14 states with more on the way, borrowing nearly nationwide. Prosper is now the first and thus only Internet… → Read More
Prosper, the people-to-people lending service that launched way back in May 2006, has found itself on a rocky road so far. Last October, Prosper suspended new lending in order to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission to create a secondary marketplace for the loans on its site (the SEC wanted to evaluate whether the company should register as a securities broker, as evidenced later… → Read More
Prosper and other peer-to-peer lenders like Zopa and Lending Club may turn out to be collateral damage from the credit crisis. Yesterday, Prosper suspended new lending in order to register with the S.E.C to create a secondary marketplace for the loans on its site. As recently as Monday, Prosper didn’t think it would have to register as a seller of securities. But the new climate of heightened… → Read More
Despite sub-prime loan worries rocking the economy, peer-to-peer loans are gaining some traction. You’d think loans between individuals would be much riskier than loans from a bank, but it turns out that individuals can be more risk averse than banks when it comes to lending out money. If you look at Prosper, the leader in P2P lending with more than $100 million in loans out so far, only 7… → Read More
Lots of news form UK-based peer-to-peer lending startup Zopa, which is prepping its US launch this week. Zopa is also launching officially in Italy this week after a ‘friends and family’ trial. Meanwhile, the new listings service (a sort of 21st Century version of the begging letter, covered here), has produced £250K worth of bids in the first month of operation. Among those looking… → Read More
U.K.-based peer to peer lending startup Zopa is gearing up for their U.S. launch. Reports of the launch have been circulating for some time (WSJ), but now it seems only days away. The service will be available at us.zopa.com, but is currently under password protection. Zopa’s peer to peer lending service differs from U.S. rivals by working with credit unions to offer person-to-person loans… → Read More
Zopa, still (it would appear) the world’s first peer to peer online lending service, has launched Zopa Listings, allowing individual borrowers to post their own specific requests for loans for individual lenders to review and then bid against. Zopa already has a Markets product where lenders meet borrowers. The new Zopa Listings (to be found here) allows individuals to ‘pitch’ online for the… → Read More
Peer to peer lending service Lending Club will close a $10.26 million series A round of financing from Norwest Venture Partners and Canaan Partners tomorrow. This comes a few months after the company’s $2 million angel round. Coinciding with the investment, Jeff Crowe and Dan Ciporin (former ceo of shopping.com) are joining Lending Club’s board of directors. Similar to other P2P… → Read More
Company: Zopa Launched: March 2005 Status: Funded by Benchmark Capital and Wellington Partners Location: London Overview: Zopa, based in London, is a lending network. Zopa synidicates loans requested by “borrower” members out to “lender” members, based on criteria and parameters set by both parties. Zopa stands for “Zone of Possible Agreement”, which “is… → Read More
Austin, TX
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
Berlin, Germany
Boston, MA
