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Broad Mix of Thought Leaders to Present at LendIt Fintech USA 2018

We are quickly approaching LendIt Fintech 2018 which will take place on April 9-11 in San Francisco

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Many regular Lend Academy readers are aware that our sister company, LendIt is hosting its next event in a few weeks. LendIt has been hosting events since 2013 which bring the fintech community together. Today, LendIt, now branded as LendIt Fintech is the leading event in financial services innovation. In April, we will host the largest ever fintech event in San Francisco.

From the very beginning we’ve thought of ourselves as a little bit different in the event business. By hosting events in New York and San Francisco we are closer to the innovative companies that make up the industry. And now, more than ever, we are seeing interest from incumbents in financial services who come to see how they can work with fintechs whether it be through partnerships, or through mergers and acquisitions. It is a fascinating time to be part of financial services and LendIt is in a unique position as the place where companies across the ecosystem connect.

Part of the job for the team who also write on Lend Academy is crafting the agenda. We have some exciting new names that we wanted to share for those who plan to attend our upcoming event. As we were thinking about broader topics we targeted the three areas that we feel are most important in fintech today: Lending, Digital Banking and Blockchain.

Lending

Lending has been the bread and butter of LendIt events from inception. As online lending has grown up, so too has LendIt. In the early days there were just a handful of early companies who were thinking very differently about how lending should be done. There is now a healthy ecosystem that has been built around the lending industry. At LendIt Fintech USA 2018 we’ll cover all verticals of lending. Many people are familiar with LendingClub CEO Scott Sanborn who will kick off the event. While we will cover every aspect of lending, here are a few other notable speakers:

  • Jay Farner, CEO, Quicken Loans
  • Max Levchin, Co-Founder & CEO, Affirm
  • Anthony Noto, CEO, SoFi
  • Renaud Laplanche, CEO, Upgrade

Digital Banking

Every bank needs to have a digital strategy these days. Consumers have more options than ever and companies need to check all of boxes no matter what size bank they are. We’ll hear a wide range of perspectives from startups to established banks looking to serve a younger customer base. This track will also cover mobile technology, banking infrastructure, data science, partnerships, wealth management and how banks can compete in the ever changing marketplace. Below are just a few names that we’ll hear from on digital banking:

  • Yolande Piazza, CEO, Citi FinTech
  • Suresh Ramamurthi, Chairman & CTO, CBW Bank
  • Luvleen Sidhu President, Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer, BankMobile
  • Jeremy K. Balkin, Head of Innovation, HSBC Bank USA
  • Nicolas Kopp, U.S. CEO, N26 Inc.

Blockchain for Financial Services

For 2018 we looked at one of the biggest new trends in financial services, blockchain and decided to create an event within our event. We are debuting our new blockchain event Blockfin by LendIt. Blockfin is co-located within the LendIt Fintech event meaning attendees have access to both events. We teamed up and are co-hosting the event with CryptoOracle. BlockFin brings together the top innovators and experts from the entire blockchain ecosystem including technology platforms, crypto companies, investors and banks for 2 1/2 action-packed days of learning, networking and business development. The event will include: 1:1 investor meetings, a demo stage for crypto funds & ICOs and 40+ hours of cutting edge blockchain and cryptocurrency content. Some names we are excited to hear from include:

  • Tim Draper Founder & Managing Director DFJ
  • Richard Craib, CEO, Numerai
  • Tom Ding, Co-founder & CEO, String Labs/Dfinity
  • Vincent Wang, Chief Innovation Officer, China Wanxiang Group
  • Kathleen Breitman, Co-Founder, Tezos
  • Catherine Wood, CEO/CIO, ARK INVEST

This is just a taste of what you can expect out of LendIt Fintech USA 2018. You can learn more by visiting our speakers page or looking at sessions confirmed on our agenda. If you plan to attend the event, be sure to act soon as the price increases by $400 on Friday night. As a Lend Academy reader you can use our special discount code “LENDACADEMYVIP” for an additional 15% off.

We hope to see you in San Francisco in April.

Nominations for the 2nd Annual LendItFintech Industry Awards are Live!

Next year the LendItFintech Industry Awards Dinner will recognize leaders in fintech.

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Since its inception, LendItFintech, a sister company to Lend Academy, has been more than just a conference producer. We pride ourselves on our written content both here at Lend Academy as well as the conference content at our events across the globe. We engage with the industry on a deep level to create the best events possible.

Last year when we were determining which new projects we should pursue we decided to dedicate resources to put on the inaugural LendItFintech Industry Awards Dinner. The entire LendItFintech team put on a fantastic event. It was great to recognize the companies leading in all areas of fintech and the executives that run those companies. You can view last year’s winners here. The atmosphere of the event is best captured in our recap video below.

The team is already hard at work putting our 2018 event together. Yesterday, we announced that nominations for the LendItFintech Industry Awards Dinner are now open. The dinner will be held on April 10, 2018 at One Market in San Francisco and the event will celebrate 500+ Fintech influencers and innovations and their outstanding achievements in 21 categories. We encourage fintech companies from around the world to apply for the categories that are the best fit.

  • Fintech Innovator of the Year
  • Executive of the Year
  • Fintech Woman of the Year
  • International Innovator of the Year
  • Top Consumer Lending Platform
  • Top Business Lending Platform
  • Top Real Estate Lending Platform
  • Emerging Lending Platform of the Year
  • Top Fintech Equity Investor
  • Most Innovative Bank
  • Most Promising Partnership
  • Most Innovative Mobile Technology
  • Top Professional Services Company of the Year
  • Top Investment Bank in Fintech
  • Best Journalist Coverage
  • Blockchain Innovator of the Year
  • The Most Innovative Token Economy
  • Excellence in Financial Inclusion
  • Top Emerging Technology Company
  • Top Enterprise Company
  • Most Successful Cross-Border Partnership

We have already confirmed thought leaders from the industry who will be judging the various awards categories. Beyond recognizing the success of the companies chosen as winners, the event serves as a unique networking opportunity. We hope to see you there next year!

Prosper Closes on a $50 Million Funding Round at a $550 Million Valuation

The Series G funding round came from a Hong Kong investment fund

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Back in the heady days of early 2015 the marketplace lending industry was running at full throttle. Every company was growing fast and raising money at fantastic valuations as there seemed to be a bottomless pit of funding available for everyone.

It was against that backdrop that Prosper raised $165 million in April 2015 in a funding round that valued the company at a whopping $1.865 billion. As we now know the industry came crashing down to earth in 2016, the money dried up and valuations went down. Good companies have still been able to raise money but often at lower valuations than in 2015.

Earlier this week Prosper closed on a Series G transaction where they raised $50 million from an investment fund co-managed by FinEx Asia and LPG Capital based in Hong Kong. While Prosper would not confirm their new valuation sources said the post money valuation was $550 million. This represents a 70.5% drop in value from their high in 2015. So the rumors from last month are true.

At first glance one might think this is a bit of a disaster for the company to have dropped in value so much. But let’s look at Prosper’s closest competitor, Lending Club, for comparison. On April 2, 2015 Lending Club was trading at $19.26 a share. Yesterday the shares closed at $6.10 which is a 68% decline in valuation. This is pretty much in line with the decrease in valuation at Prosper.

Here is what CEO David Kimball said of this funding round:

This investment is a strong signal of confidence in our business fundamentals and the momentum we are seeing right now. Over the past year, we’ve shown that we can build a sustainable business that continues to redefine the online lending experience for our borrowers and investors. We believe this partnership will open up additional opportunities for our business as we continue to grow.

A spokesperson for Prosper told me that the money will not be used for operations but rather for new projects. Prosper is now cash flow positive with liquid assets of around $42 million as of Q2 2017. There was no dire need to get this funding round done but it will be helpful for them as they look to grow in a sustainable way.

My Take

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LendIt Europe Agenda Released, Discounted Pricing Ends Soon

Tomorrow is the last chance to receive the summer pricing discount for LendIt Europe 2017

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LendIt holds the largest lending and fintech conferences across the globe and is also a sister company to Lend Academy. Each year we hold three events in the largest fintech markets: US, China and Europe. Our European event is just around the corner, taking place on October 9-10 at the InterContinental London at The O2. We’re excited to be holding our fourth European conference and the team has been hard at work to make this our best event yet.

Similar to our US event, we’ve broadened the scope of topics covered. Some of the new topics we’ll be digging into include AI, biometrics, blockchain and financial inclusion. We’ve also dedicated an entire track to digital banking, a segment which is getting significant traction across Europe. We’ll also be covering our core topics including innovations in lending, credit & underwriting and investor insights.

The full agenda is on the LendIt website, but here are a few topics I am most excited about:

  • How to Navigate Open Banking (Imran Gulamhuseinwala, Ernst & Young)
  • Digitization of Finance How Customer Expectations are Changing (Anne Boden, Starling Bank, Rhydian Lewis, Ratesetter Giovanni Daprà, Moneyfarm)
  • Implementing AI in Financial Services: Case Study (Francesco Brenna, IBM, Roberto Mancone, Deutsche Bank)
  • How Big Banks Are Approaching the New Connected World (Gilad Amir, Lloyds Banking Group, Benoit Legrand, ING, Raman Bhatia, HSBC, Gustavo Vinacua, BBVA)
  • Renaud Laplanche of Upgrade talking about Online Lending 2.0 and the state of the US fintech market.

Discount Pricing to LendIt Europe 2017 Ends Tomorrow

Summer pricing of £1,295 ends at midnight on September 8th. After that, ticket prices will rise to £1,495. As always Lend Academy readers can receive an additional 15% discount by using the code LENDACADEMYVIP at checkout.

You can register now on the LendIt website.

Below is a video with some highlights from our event last year that was at the same location. We hope to see you at LendIt Europe 2017 in October.

New Report on Fintech from the World Economic Forum

A detailed report from the World Economic Forum questions the role that fintech firms will have in the future of financial services

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Back in April I attended a couple of roundtable discussions in New York organized by the World Economic Forum. Many leaders from the fintech industry were there as well as some leaders from traditional finance and consultancies. We had very productive discussions on the future of fintech and afterwards they said that out of these sessions would come a detailed white paper.

Today, the World Economic Forum released a report titled, Beyond Fintech: A Pragmatic Assessment Of Disruptive Potential In Financial Services, that was the result of those and many other discussions they had with leaders from around the world. The report aims to answer the question about whether fintech companies will really change the financial landscape. It builds on the last report in 2015 called The Future of Financial Services, sharing the impact of fintech firms and various outlooks for the future.

Here is a very short summary of the report released today:

Our findings suggest that fintechs have materially changed the basis of competition in financial services, but have not yet materially changed the competitive landscape. They play a critical role in defining the pace and direction of innovation across the sector but have struggled to overcome the scale advantages of large financial institutions.

Below are some of the key findings from the report:

  • Fintech start-ups have so far fallen short of their ambitions to upend the competitive landscape in finance, driving innovation but struggling to capture market share in mature markets.
  • What fintechs have done is define the direction and speed of innovation across most areas of financial services; they have also set new and higher bars for user experience.
  • Large technology firms like Amazon and Google may represent the largest competitive threat to financial institutions, as their AI and cloud computing services become more central to the sector, and customer data rises in importance.
  • Models of financial services innovation around the world are diverging, benefitting local firms and making it harder to co-ordinate a regulatory response.

It is a detailed report, some 196 pages, covering most of the major verticals in financial services: payments, insurance, digital banking, lending, investment management, equity crowdfunding and market infrastructure (including blockchain). If you want to get a sense for where financial services is heading this report is a must read.

Registration for LendIt Europe 2017 is Now Open

LendIt Europe returns to London for the fourth time on October 9-10 at the InterContinental London—The O2.

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I was in London last week where we officially launched LendIt Europe 2017. We are returning to the InterContinental at the O2 for the second year in a row where we expect over 1,000 attendees this year.

Our 2017 event will be a little different to last year. Similar to what we have done at our USA event we are expanding to include other aspects of fintech beyond online lending. While we will still be covering lending in some depth we also want to highlight the innovations happening in other areas of financial services. Europe continues to be a hotbed of innovation and we will be covering a number of new categories: artificial intelligence, machine learning, biometrics, blockchain and we will also dig deep on digital banking. Supporting the startup community is in LendIt’s DNA and we are excited to have PitchIt @ LendIt return for the second year at our Europe conference. Below is an agenda framework to give you some idea of what we have planned:

Early confirmed keynote speakers include Jaidev Janardana, the CEO of Zopa, Francesco Brenna, an Executive Partner at IBM Global Business Services and Shane Williams, the co-head of UBS Smartwealth. Our current confirmed speakers are here and if you are interested in becoming a speaker at LendIt Europe 2017 you can submit an application here.

Lend Academy Readers Receive a 15% Discount

The launch price of £795 is in effect until June 2nd, but as a Lend Academy reader you can receive an additional 15% discount by using the code LENDACADEMYVIP at checkout. The discount code is always good for 15% off but you will receive the best pricing if you purchase before midnight on June 2nd. You can register now on the LendIt website.

Our fourth London event I expect will be our biggest and best ever. I am looking forward to hearing from a range of industry leaders in not just the UK but from across Europe. It will be interesting to see the impact that Brexit has on the event and with open banking arriving in Q1 next year that is going to provide some major impetus for change that we will be covering as well.

Below is a video with some highlights from our event last year that was at the same location. I hope to see you at LendIt Europe 2017 in October.

This Summer LendIt is Offering Two Ways to Learn About China

LendIt is headed to China again this summer with our annual Lang Di Fintech Conference and LendIt China Executive Tour

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The LendIt team is excited to return to China for our second annual Lang Di Fintech conference on July 15 -16 in Shanghai and our fourth annual China Executive Tour from July 8-17. The tour will start with some fun in Macau, move to Hong Kong for our Investor Summit with AMTD, then onto Beijing for three days of meetings, and finally end in Shanghai for the conference itself.

The Second Annual Lang Di Fintech Conference in Shanghai

In China, the LendIt Conference is called Lang Di Fintech and it is the largest fintech event in the country. Similar to other LendIt events in the USA and Europe, Lang Di Fintech will be a key forum for the leading global fintech companies to meet, learn, share experiences, and build partnerships. We expect over 2,000 attendees comprised of entrepreneurs, investors, regulators, service providers, researchers and media from the US, Europe and China.

Lang Di Fintech will cover a broad spectrum of fintech topics with a special emphasis on technology and financial inclusion. We will have six broad categories, which include fintech technology, blockchain, lending, banking & technology, financial inclusion, and Asia Pacific Fintech outside of China. We will have specific panels on technology like artificial intelligence, biometrics and cybersecurity.

Lang Di Fintech will feature more than 50 Western speakers including government leaders and executives from leading financial services firms. As always, simultaneous translation is provided for all guests at our event.

The Fourth Annual LendIt China Executive Tour

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Advertise on Lend Academy

We are now open to companies interested in advertising on LendAcademy.com, through our large newsletter subscriber base, or on the Lend Academy podcast.

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Since I began Lend Academy back in 2010 we have not accepted external advertisers. Sure readers will have noticed ads for LendIt and NSR Invest but those are both sister companies to Lend Academy, owned by the same parent organization. But we have had many requests from potential advertisers, particularly in recent months, so we have decided to allow others to advertise for the first time. Next month, we will begin this process.

Now, we are not going to go crazy and slap ads all over the place. There will be a limited number of ads done tastefully and unobtrusively. Why are we doing this now? As the industry has become more complex we need to expand our editorial team but we cannot do that without real revenue coming in. We are committed to continue delivering the high quality content you have come to expect from us, in fact we want to cover the industry with more depth.

Recently, Lend Academy conducted a reader survey to better understand our audience. We share our audience breakdown above, information we obtained from that survey. You can see that we are still very much an investor-centric site with individual investors making up the largest segment of Lend Academy readers.

Our audience is large and growing with around 130,000 pageviews per month and our email list has around 10,000 subscribers. Advertising opportunities will be not just on our website but also in our newsletter as well as the Lend Academy Podcast which has had well over 150,000 downloads.

If you or your company is interested in advertising please fill out our form here to express interest.

The Future of Marketplace Lending After the Lending Club News Webinar

NSR Invest and Emerald Direct Lending Advisers team up to share their perspective on Lending Club.

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Lending_Club_NSR_Emerald_Webinar

The Lending Club news hit over a month ago now, but there has been plenty of talk since then about the future of Lending Club and the marketplace lending industry. NSR Invest, a sister company to Lend Academy and Emerald Direct Lending Advisers are hosting a webinar tomorrow, June 21 from 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm ET to give their perspectives in light of what has been going on in the industry.

The conversation will be centered around all things Lending Club including: the corporate situation, stock dynamics, risk of failure, as well as recent lending activity. If you have been wondering what the future holds for Lending Club, tomorrow will be a great chance to ask questions and get perspectives from experts in the area.

Panelists will include Joseph Besecker, Founder & CEO, Emerald Direct Lending Advisers and Bo Brustkern, Co-Founder and CEO, NSR Invest. Summer Tucker, Director of Client Success at NSR Invest will be moderating the discussion.

If you’re interested in attending, you can sign up for the free webinar here.

Lend Academy Turns Five Today

A reflection of the major milestones of the past five years and a look to the future as Lend Academy celebrates its birthday.

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Lend Academy 5th Birthday

It was exactly five years ago today that I launched Lend Academy. Well, actually back then the site was called Social Lending Network with a different URL (www.sociallending.net). I rebranded the site to Lend Academy in 2012. Anyway, I officially launched my P2P lending blog on November 30, 2010.

Today, I am going to reflect a little on what the industry was like back then and the changes we have seen over the past five years.

I launched Lend Academy with a three part series on the State of P2P Lending in the USA. The first part focused on Lending Club and Prosper, part two was on emerging companies and part three focused on student loans (pre-SoFi and CommonBond). Going back and reading these three posts reminds me just how very far we have come in five years.

Back in November 2010, Lending Club had issued less than $200 million in total loans and was focused primarily on retail investors. Prosper had issued more loans than Lending Club (just over $200 million) and they still operated under the reverse auction model, although they would move to the fixed price model the following month.

When I started writing about this space I did it because I was personally invested and I loved the whole idea of P2P lending. I had no background in finance but I had recently sold my business and I was looking for a career change. I had always enjoyed investing and I felt like P2P lending had a lot of potential. Although I must admit I had no idea it was going to take off the way it has.

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About Lend Academy

Lend Academy has been bringing you all the news and information about peer to peer lending since 2010. Founded by Peter Renton, Lend Academy not only has the most active news site, but also the largest online forum and the first and most popular podcast in the industry.

The Lend Academy team loves peer to peer lending and our staff have all invested their own personal money in one or more of the platforms. Lend Academy Media is part of Cardinal Rose Group which also owns LendIt, the leading industry conference, and has a majority interest in NSR Invest.

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