• Subscribe
  • Contact Us
  • About LendIt Fintech News
  • Home
  • Menu Item
  • Menu Item
  • Menu Item
  • Menu Item

Lend Academy

LendIt Fintech News: Daily Coverage of Fintech & Online Lending


  • Editorial
  • Daily News
  • Podcast
  • Investor Forum
  • Events

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.

November 30, 2015 By Peter Renton 7 Comments

Views: 2

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.

I had no grand business plan but I wanted to make a successful business in this industry. I had the luxury of being able to work full time and not have to generate an income. At the time I remember saying to my wife that I will give this three years of effort. If it doesn’t look like this P2P lending thing is panning out in that time period I will stop and go do something else.

I doubt anyone could have predicted back then where we would be in late 2015. Maybe Renaud at Lending Club had some idea but the way this industry has just exploded in the last year or two has certainly taken me and many others by surprise.

Major Milestones of the Past Five Years

So, how did we get here? Two words: institutional investors. While many retail investors lamented the arrival of these large investors, without them the industry in this country would only be a fraction of the size it is today. Lending Club was the first to seize on this opportunity when it launched LC Advisors in February 2011.

At the time I didn’t even cover the launch of LC Advisors because I was far more focused on the retail investor. I first noted the changing investor environment back in March 2011 when it became clear to me that institutional investors were going to be a part of this industry.

The arrival of LC Advisors proved to be a seminal moment because it allowed Lending Club to attract large investors, thereby scaling far more quickly. Around that same time Prosper hired a capital markets person and within a few months they had signed their first institutional investor with the biggest commitment ever to this industry.

The launch of the first hedge fund dedicated to this space was also an important milestone. This came back in late 2012 when Eaglewood launched their first Lending Club fund. Another pivotal moment came in early 2013 when a new executive team took over at Prosper and recapitalized the business. Back then Prosper was struggling but since the arrival of Ron Suber and Aaron and Steve Vermut Prosper has been a major success story.

Perhaps the most important moment in our industry’s history, as far as raising awareness of marketplace lending, had to be the Lending Club IPO. Taking place on December 11 last year it signified a coming of age of our industry. We were no longer this curiosity that could be ignored – real businesses with rapid growth trajectories were being created here.

It would probably be remiss of me not to mention the founding of LendIt, the industry’s first and largest conference, as an important evolution of the industry over the past five years. As one of the co-founders, I clearly have a vested interest in this conference, but I also see it as one of the barometers on the growth of the industry as a whole. Our first conference in June 2013 in New York had 350 people, our second conference had 950 people and earlier this year our third conference had 2,500 people. Like many industry participants LendIt has mirrored the increasing interest in the space.

Cheers to the Next Five Years

As I reflect now on the past five years I am struck by one thing. While we have certainly come a long way as an industry as I have pointed out above, we have so much more still to do. If we are to be considered a true asset class we need easier ways for investors to deploy their money. This means mutual funds and ETFs from some of the large fund companies (Schwab, Fidelity, etc.) as well as a plug ‘n’ play solution for financial advisors. We need an index fund that gives people exposure to the entire asset class and people should be able to check a box on their 401k enrollment application to deploy some of their retirement money to this industry.

We are not there yet and these things will not all happen next year or even the year after the that. But I will be very surprised if, when it comes time to write my 10-year Lend Academy birthday post, all these things haven’t come to pass by then.

So, cheers to the next five years. It is going to be a very interesting ride.

Filed Under: Announcements

Views: 2

Comments

  1. Rob L says

    November 30, 2015 at 4:19 pm

    Cheers & congrats!!

    Reply
  2. Corky says

    November 30, 2015 at 5:48 pm

    Happy Birthday, can’t believe how much you’ve grown!

    Reply
  3. Mathias says

    December 1, 2015 at 12:11 am

    Congratulations….and THANK YOU for everything that you have done for the everyday investor. I have been following your work for a couple of years now and have been able to benefit from it considerably. Know that whatever success you have enjoyed you have definitely earned. Looking forward to whats coming next

    Reply
  4. Jason Jones says

    December 1, 2015 at 10:50 pm

    I love that you turned your hobby into a business. Congratulations on 5 years Peter! I am honored to have you as my business partner. I enjoy learning something from you every day. Your podcasts are my new favorite.

    Reply
  5. Peter Renton says

    December 2, 2015 at 10:42 am

    Thanks everyone. I appreciate your good wishes. It has been a fun ride so far.

    Reply
  6. Gail Smallridge says

    December 3, 2015 at 3:15 pm

    Happy Birthday! Peter, it is a pleasure to do business with someone so passionate and inspired by his work. I am grateful for your judgment and guidance. I look forward to the next five years.

    Reply
  7. Hrant says

    December 6, 2015 at 8:43 pm

    Congratulations Peter to a very well earned and respected reputation. Since having met you at my first meetup of P2P in 2009, you unselfishly have disseminated unbiasedly, and transparently, all you have learned, and share freely w/all the fruits of your labor. You and your team deserve the best of the best, and wish you many many more birthdays in the future, full of health, happiness, and of course prosperity for all who know you, work with you, and are lucky enough to be able to share in your pearls of wisdom. Don’t ever change! Keep up the great work, and looking forward to seeing all at the bigger, and better SF LendIt conference in 2016, which all must attend!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Investor Intelligence

Peter Renton's Returns

Investor Forum

Lending Club Review

Prosper Review

Investor Resources

Most Popular Editorials

The Pure Marketplace Lending Model is Dead, the Hybrid Takes its Place

The 2018 Lending Club and Prosper Tax Guide

My Returns at Lending Club and Prosper

Map of Available States for Lending Club and Prosper Investors

Banks and Marketplace Lending Platforms: Ideal Partners?

Subscribe to the Podcast

Subscribe to the Lend Academy Podcast on iTunes
Subscribe to the Lend Academy Podcast
List of Podcast Episodes

Archives

Follow @LendAcademy Follow @LendIt

ABOUT LENDIT FINTECH NEWS

LendIt Fintech News, Powered by Lend Academy, has been bringing you all the news and information about fintech and online lending since 2010 when it was founded by Peter Renton. We not only have the industry’s most active news site, but also the largest investor forum and the first and most popular podcast.

We are a team of fintech enthusiasts who have been covering the industry for many years. With a deep knowledge of online lending, digital banking, blockchain, artificial intelligence and more our team covers the daily news and writes in-depth editorials.

Recent Editorials

  • Top 10 Fintech News Stories for the Week Ending January 23, 2021
  • Podcast 282: Catherine Berman of CNote
  • Crypto Custody Gets Shot in the Arm from Goldman & Anchorage
  • LendingClub Receives Final Approval for its Acquisition of Radius Bank
  • Top 10 Fintech News Stories for the Week Ending January 16, 2021

Copyright © 2021 · Metro Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in