News Archives - Lend Academy

Many Fintech Names on the Inc. 5000 List of Fastest Growing Companies

Fintech has strong representation on the 2018 list of the fastest growing private companies in America

August 16, 2018 By Peter Renton Leave a Comment

Every year Inc. magazine publishes a list of the 5,000 fastest growing private companies in America called the Inc. 5000. These are the small companies that have grown the fastest between 2014 and 2017. Collectively, the companies on this year’s list amassed $206.2 billion in revenue in 2017, up 158 percent from $79.8 billion in 2014.

Of the 5,000 companies on this year’s list exactly 233 are in the financial services category. Below is a screenshot of the top 10 companies in this category. Leading the list is Fundrise, the real estate platform for individual investors, a name that would be familiar to Lend Academy readers (I interviewed CEO Ben Miller on the podcast last year). Another well known name is Fundera, the small business lending marketplace, who were the third fastest growing company in our category. I encourage you to explore the complete list here where you can search for specific companies or filter by industry, state and many other criteria.

Below is a graphic showing the top 10 companies in the financial services category. It is interesting to me that four of the top five companies on this list are based in New York City while San Francisco only has one company in the top 10.

LendIt Fintech Makes the List at #683

We are proud to be included on this year’s list in our first year of eligibility. LendIt Fintech made the list at #683 with a 736% growth rate from 2014 to 2017. Our conference grew from around 1,000 attendees in 2014 to 5,000 in 2017 but in that time we also added Europe and China events to our schedule. We expect to continue to grow and to be on this list again next year.

OCC Announces Fintech Charter on the Heels of US Treasury’s Report on Fintech

It was a busy day in Washington as the OCC and the US Treasury both make announcements that will impact the future of fintech

July 31, 2018 By Peter Renton Leave a Comment

The OCC Fintech Charter was formally proposed back in December 2016. Along with many other organizations we responded to their proposal in January of last year. Then a couple of months later the OCC released details on what the fintech charter might entail. Since then not much has happened. Until today.

Of course, the OCC went through a leadership transition with the new administration as former Comptroller of the Currency, Thomas Curry, ended his term in May, 2017. The OCC had a temporary leader, Keith Noreika, for six months until the current Comptroller, Joseph Otting, was sworn in. That was back in November and now eight months later the OCC has finally announced that they will begin accepting applications from fintech companies for this special purpose national bank charter. Here is what Comptroller Otting said about their new charter (from the press release):

The federal banking system must continue to evolve and embrace innovation to meet the changing customer needs and serve as a source of strength for the nation’s economy. The decision to consider applications for special purpose national bank charters from innovative companies helps provide more choices to consumers and businesses, and creates greater opportunity for companies that want to provide banking services in America.

Nat Hoopes, Executive Director of the Marketplace Lending Association, had this to say about the new charter (from Twitter): [Read more…]

Website Changes at Lend Academy

The first step in merging the Lend Academy and LendIt brands has begun as Lend Academy is now LendIt Fintech News Powered by Lend Academy

July 11, 2018 By Peter Renton Leave a Comment

If you are reading this article on the Lend Academy site (as opposed to an RSS Reader or email) then you will see some changes. Before I get to the changes let me give you a little back story.

This site started out in 2010 as sociallending.net (Social Lending Network). This was a blog I purchased when I decided I wanted to write about p2p lending or social lending as it was often called back then. It soon became apparent that the social lending term was becoming less relevant so I rebranded to Lend Academy in 2012.

Then in 2013 I started LendIt with my fellow co-founders. Little did I know how that company would take off. It is now the largest lending-focused fintech conference series on the planet and it is where I spend the majority of my time. Because of this success LendIt has become more well known than Lend Academy. So we have decided, after much internal discussion, to slowly phase out the Lend Academy brand and bring everything under the LendIt umbrella.

What you see now is the first phase of this project. Eventually Lend Academy, LendIt News and the LendIt blog will all be under the same domain. Right now, the Lend Academy domain will remain but eventually almost everything will move to lendit.com. Although I will be keeping the Lend Academy name on the podcast as well as the @LendAcademy twitter handle. For the time being Lend Academy is now officially LendIt Fintech News Powered by Lend Academy.

LendIt Fintech News is a Fantastic Resource

[Read more…]

Goldman Sachs Said to be Partnering With Apple on a New Credit Card

The new credit card will carry the Apple Pay brand and will be the first foray into credit cards for Marcus by Goldman Sachs

May 10, 2018 By Peter Renton 1 Comment

On stage last month at LendIt Fintech USA 2018 Omer Ismail, the Chief Commercial Officer for Marcus by Goldman Sachs, said that one of the new products his firm was looking at was credit cards. Not that surprising, really, for a company working hard to grow their consumer finance business.

Earlier today the Wall Street Journal broke the story that Goldman Sachs would be partnering with Apple on a new credit card. When I was thinking about potential ways Marcus would launch a credit card, a partnership with Apple was not what came to mind. It points to the many advantages that Marcus has over pretty much every other fintech company. They have the Goldman Sachs name behind them and have deep relationships with some of the largest companies on the planet. That opens doors that are simply not available to even the more established fintech platforms.

So how will this partnership work? I reached out to Goldman Sachs but not surprisingly they had no comment, so we will have to go with the information in the WSJ article:

The planned card would carry the Apple Pay brand and could launch early next year, people familiar with the matter said. Apple will replace its longstanding rewards-card partnership with Barclays, the people said.

Apple has had a card relationship with Barclays going back to 2005 so this is a significant move on Apple’s part as well. Given this is going to be an Apple Pay branded card Apple is clearly focused on building that part of the business. The WSJ states that the economics of any Apple Pay transaction would be significantly improved with this new Marcus card. [Read more…]

World Bank Releases the Latest Global Findex Database

The Global Findex Database and accompanying report give a clear indication of how fintech is impacting access to financial services globally

April 23, 2018 By Peter Renton 1 Comment

In 2011 the World Bank released the first ever Global Findex Database as “the world’s most comprehensive data set on how adults save, borrow, make payments, and manage risk”. A new database was release based on 2014 data and last week the 2017 edition was released. The full database (in Excel format) and the summary and detailed report are all available for download here.

This is important work because it is the only in depth research of its kind that reaches to all corners of the globe. Here is the methodology quoted from the report:

Compiled using nationally representative surveys of more than 150,000 adults age 15 and above in over 140 economies, the 2017 Global Findex database includes updated indicators on access to and use of formal and informal financial services. It has additional data on the use of financial technology (or fintech), including the use of mobile phones and the internet to conduct financial transactions.

The Most Important Findings

One of the most interesting findings is that an additional 515 million people have opened some kind of financial services account between 2014 and 2017. This means that 69% of adults globally (around 3.8 billion people) now have an account, up from 62% in 2014 and 51% in 2011. This is an astounding change and one, I believe, that speaks to the growth of fintech around the world. Over the last six years it has become much easier to open an account digitally with both banks and non-banks.

What is even more interesting is that of the 1.7 billion adults who remain unbanked around two-thirds own a mobile phone. Now, this would not be a smartphone in most circumstances but many financial services are available on text-only flip phones. In China 82% of those people who are non-banked have a mobile phone, in India and Mexico it is more than 50%. This does speak to the potential to continue to increase the numbers of people with some kind of bank account in the coming years. [Read more…]

Five Key Takeaways from the Interview with the CEO of ZhongAn Insurance

ZhongAn has more customers than any other insurance company on the planet and they are less than five years old

August 17, 2017 By Peter Renton Leave a Comment

A couple of weeks ago we published a podcast with the CEO of ZhongAn Insurance, Jeffrey Chen. I want to highlight some of the key takeaways today because I think they are a truly amazing company and some of these highlights might have been lost in translation.

Back in June, IFR, a Thomson Reuters publication, broke the news that ZhongAn had filed an IPO application to the Hong Kong stock exchange targeting a listing as early as the end of 2017, raising up to US$1.5 billion. If the deal goes through, ZhongAn will be the first insurtech company to be listed in Hong Kong. It will also likely become one of the most valuable fintech companies on the planet.

With that background here are the five key takeaways from my interview with Jeffrey Chen.

1. ZhongAn is Backed By Some of China’s Largest Companies

Ping An Insurance is ranked by Forbes as the #1 insurance company in the world. They are an early backer of ZhongAn. The other early backers were Alibaba and Tencent, the two most valuable companies in China as measured by market cap. This would be like a fintech startup in the US receiving initial funding from Apple, Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway. Truly impressive.

2. Their First Product Was a Simple Insurance Offering for Alibaba Merchants

ZhongAn’s first product was called Zhong Le Bao, a type of e-commerce returns insurance. It was launched on Alibaba’s Taobao platform and was aimed at covering merchant shipping losses when consumers were dissatisfied with product purchases. It also allowed merchants to bypass Alibaba’s deposit requirements. [Read more…]

Prosper Reports Strong Q2 Numbers – Is Cash Flow Positive Again

Prosper sees strong loan origination growth in Q2 as well as a return to profitability

August 14, 2017 By Peter Renton 1 Comment

Prosper announced their second quarter numbers today and the results are quite promising. Even though Prosper is a private company they are regulated by the SEC and have to file quarterly and annual financials just like public companies. It has been a while since we reviewed Prosper’s numbers so I thought it was time to share.

As you can see in the graphic above Prosper had a rocky 2016. They went from a quarterly origination high of over $1.1 billion in Q4 2015 to a low of $312 million in Q3 2016. Since that time they have shown some solid growth with originations in Q2 2017 coming in at $775 million up from $586 million in Q1. They still have a long way to go before they reach record levels but growth has returned to the first US marketplace lender.

More important than growth, though, is profitability. I copied some detail from the 10-Q filed today and you can see that Adjusted EBITDA was $6.7 million last quarter. While officially their net loss was over $41 million that included $39 million of a one-time charge related to warrants. The solid quarter was also demonstrated in their positive cash flow, they generated $8.6 million of cash from their operating activities in Q2. [Read more…]

Peer to Peer Lending News Roundup – September 29, 2012

September 29, 2012 By Peter Renton Leave a Comment

During the week I share the latest p2p lending news on Twitter as it happens. Then every Saturday I take the most interesting news items and blog posts from the past week and share them here.

Random Thoughts – PeerCube: Founders’ Loan Filter for Lending Club (The people behind Peercube explain the filters they use to invest in Lending Club)

Mr. Money Mustache – The Lending Club Experiment (Popular personal finance blogger gives his thoughts on why he invested $10K in Lending Club)

Money Talks News – Ask Stacy: Is Peer-to-Peer Lending a Pyramid Scheme? (A reader asks if the borrowers on Lending Club and Prosper are real)

Grubnotes – P2P investments, perfect for lazy investors like myself! (Long time Lending Club investor talks about a change in the direction of his investments)

Money Q&A – Lending Club Update And Returns – September 2012 (Another change in strategy from a Lending Club investor)

Wall Street Journal – Looking for the ‘Next Big Thing’? Ranking the Top 50 Start-Ups (Prosper is ranked #4 in this prestigious list)

Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance – WHERE TO GET A HIGH RETURN ON MY CASH (Personal finance blogger shares her thoughts on Prosper after one year of investing)

Lending Club – Investor Updates and Enhancements (the blog post announcing the recent changes to their platform)

Roundup of Social Lending News – September 22, 2012

September 22, 2012 By Peter Renton 4 Comments

During the week I share the latest p2p lending news on Twitter as it happens. Then every Saturday I take the most interesting news items and blog posts from the past week and share them here.

Random Thoughts – Mrs. RT: From Lending Club Night to PeerCube Night (How Peercube is being used to filter and select notes on Lending Club). I will be reviewing Peercube in an upcoming post.

Lending Club – Google This: “Searching for Better Yields” (Interesting to see Google is starting to look at alternative asset classes to invest their huge cash war chest).

Prosper – August, 2012 Investor Monthly Update (Comparison of Prosper notes with corporate bonds and some commentary about the current economic environment).

Informilo – Social Lending (Canadian academic Don Tapscott gives his thoughts on p2p lending and its impact on banking).

Nerd Wallet – P2P Lending: Borrowing Beyond The Bank (Good primer on p2p lending and direct p2p along with a comparison chart).

Bible Money Matters – Searching For Better Yields? Lending Club Could Be The Ticket In Tough Economic Times: Returns At 12% (Long time Lending Club investor and blogger shares his returns, his strategy and some cool p2p lending facts).

Everything Finance – Why People are Scared of P2P Lending (New investor gives her thoughts about why some people don’t jump on the p2p lending band wagon).

The Fine Print – Government to Challenge Financial Red Tape (UK blogger provides insight into UK government plans to regulate p2p lending across the pond).

Sustainable Life Blog – Lending Club 6 Month Update (Small investor gives an update on his Lending Club investments).

P2P Analytics – LENDING CLUB NOTE AVAILABILITY & NEW INDEX FOR SUBSCRIBERS (New Lending Club analytics site provides an update along with a chart showing historical days in funding).

P2P Lending at the Money2020 Conference

September 20, 2012 By Peter Renton 12 Comments

Next month in Las Vegas is the inaugural Money2020 conference. You may not have heard of it but they are billing themselves as a “groundbreaking event for emerging payments and financial services”.

The list of speakers is pretty impressive, even more so now that my name has been added to the list… Yes, I will be participating in a panel on p2p lending along with Renaud Laplanche of Lending Club, Kirk Inglis of Prosper and Steve Rabago of ZimpleMoney. I am curious to see how many of these cutting edge financial types are interested in p2p lending. I will report back after the conference.

Here is the official speil from the conference organizers about Money2020:

Money2020 Expo is a groundbreaking event for emerging payments and financial services, bringing together innovators in money to create the definitive industry community. Whether you’re established or startup, if you’re working hard to disrupt the status quo, Money2020 is for you.

Money2020 spans the entire long tail of the evolution of money — from novel saving solutions, to new spending value propositions, to evolving forms of lending.

If you are interested in going they have given me a special 20% off coupon to share with my readers. The coupon code is PRENT2020. And if you decide to go be sure to let me know, I would love to catch up.