A daily newsletter summarizing recent activity & interesting start-ups globally
RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – ALTERNATIVE LENDING
- Finova Financial, a US-based lending platform for car title loans, raised $52.5M in equity and debt funding. Link
- Mosaic, a US-based provider of financing to homeowners for purchase of rooftop solar systems, raised $220M in an undisclosed funding round led by Warburg Pincus. Link
- CommonBond, a US-based online lending platform, raised $30M in Series C funding round led by Neuberger Berman Private Equity and another $300M in debt to make loans. Link
- Paidy, a Japan-based provider of purchase finance, raised $15M in Series B funding. Link
- MarketInvoice, a UK-based invoice finance platform, raised $9.6M in an undisclosed funding round led by MCI Capital. Link
- Kubo.financiero, a Mexican peer-to-peer lending platform, raised $7.5M in Series A funding round led by Bamboo Finance. Link
- Funding Societies, a Singapore-based lending marketplace for SME loans, raised $7.5M in Series A funding round led by Sequoia. Link
- Peer Street, an online lending marketplace for real estate loans, raised $6.1M in seed funding. Link
- Bigstone Capital, an Australia-based online lending marketplace for SME loans, raised $3M in seed funding. Link
- ZestFinance, a LA-based company that uses machine learning to transform vast amounts of complex data into credit scores, received strategic investment from Baidu. Link
- Faircent, an India-based peer to peer lending platform, raised $1.5M funding from Brand Capital. Link
- LQD Business Finance, a Chicago-based technology-enabled business lender, raised Series A funding round from Fintech Ventures Fund. Link
- Elevate, an online credit solution provider to consumers, increased its credit facility with Victory Park Capital by an additional $100M to a total of $545M. Link
- West Creek Financial, a Virginia-based point-of-sale lease-to-own provider, raised $25M senior secured credit facility from Victory Park Capital. Link
- LendingClub reported a second quarter losses of $81.4M; CFO resigned. Link
- Prosper, an SF-based P2P lending platform, is in talks with a group of investment firms to sell around $5B of loans over the next two years. Link
- Bank of Baroda, an Indian public sector bank has partnered with 7 fintech companies including CreditMantri, KredX, IndiaLends and FundsTiger. Link
SOME INTERESTING STARTUPS FOUND
Aprenita (2015, NYC) – An online lending platform offering growth capital to mobile app developers.
Airfordable (2015, Chicago, $120k) – A lending platform that enables people to book flights for a fraction paymeny upfront and pay the remainder in installments before the day of the flight.
LEADER BOARD – ALTERNATIVE LENDING
Consumer Loans
Lending Club (2007, SF, IPO) – P2P online lending marketplace. Backed by Canaan Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, Morgenthaler Ventures, Foundation Capital. Went public in 2014.
Prosper (2005, SF, $353M) – P2P lending marketplace. Backed by Credit Suisse, Sequoia Capital, Francisco Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson.
SoFi (2011, SF, $1.5B) – Marketplace lender and provider of student loan refinancing. Backed by SoftBank, Third Point Ventures, Renren, Discovery Capital, Baseline Ventures.
Avant (2012, Chicago, $655M) – Online lending platform. Backed by Tiger Global Management, Victory Park Capital, August Capital.
Affirm (2012, SF, $420M) – Provides instant point-of-sale financing for online purchases. Backed by Spark Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Pave (2012, NY, $319M) – Online marketplace lending platform for personal loans. Backed by Maxfield Capital, Seer Capital.
Klarna (2005, Stockholm, $290M) – Platform providing e-commerce payment solutions for merchants and shoppers. Backed by General Atlantic, Sequoia Capital, QED Investors, DST Global.
Business Loans
OnDeck (2007, NY, IPO) – Technology-enabled financial platform that provides loans to small and medium-sized businesses. Backed by Tiger Global Management, Google Ventures, RRE Ventures. Went public in 2014.
IOU Financial (2006, Kennesaw, IPO) – Working capital loan provider to small businesses. Went public in 2014.
Kabbage (2009, Atlanta, $240M) – Provider of working capital loans for small businesses. Backed by Reverence Capital Partners, SoftBank Capital, Mohr Davidow Ventures, BlueRun Ventures.
Funding Circle (2010, London, $273M) – P2P marketplace for business loans. Backed by DST Global, Index Ventures, Accel Partners, Temasek Holdings.
Behalf (2011, NY, $129M) – Lending platform which offers financing for small businesses. Backed by Sequoia Capital, Victory Park Capital, Maverick Ventures.
LendingHome (2013, SF, $109M) – Online mortgage marketplace for real estate loan. Backed by Foundation Capital, Renren, Ribbit Capital.
Alternate Financing
Fundbox (2012, SF, $107.5M) – Provides invoice discounting service. Backed by Spark Capital, General Catalyst Partners, Khosla Ventures.
BlueVine (2013, Palo Alto, $64M) – Provides factoring services to SMEs. Backed by Citi Ventures, 83North, Correlation Ventures, Kima Ventures, Kreos Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank.
Enablers
Zest Finance (2009, LA, $54M) – Deploys machine learning to provide lenders with borrowers’ credit score. Backed by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Matrix Partners, Kensington Capital, Northgate Capital, Baidu.
Think Finance (2001, Fort Worth, $60M) – Analytics and technology services for lenders. Backed by Sequoia Capital.
White-Label Platform
Insikt (2012, SF, $24M) – White label platform for online lending. Backed by Accelerator Ventures, Investment AB Kinnevik, FirstMark Capital, Atalaya Capital.
Mirador Financial (2014, Portland, $10M) – Offers a cloud based, white label ‘lending as a service’ (LaaS) solution that allows companies to start their own lending platforms. Backed by Core Innovation Capital, Collaborative Fund, Crosslink Capital, Jump Capital, Vesta Corporation, Nyca Partners, Wicklow Capital.
Leader board includes all the top funded, IPO and successfully running bootstrapped companies along with their location, founding year and funding amount.
For latest update, visit Alternative Lending feed.