We all knew this was coming but this morning it became official. Earlier today Lending Club crossed over $500 million in new loans originated since they started operations in 2007. In fact, it has been quite a rapid start to the month for Lending Club with nearly $10 million in new loans issued in the first day and a half of February.
You should go and read the press release announcing this milestone. In this release they announced that 2011 revenue came in at $12.8 million – they also released this interesting tidbit:
Investments are also soaring: Lending Club now receives more than $30 million a month in new investments from a base of over 50,000 retail investors and a rapidly growing pool of institutional investors, with more than 50 investor accounts over $1 million and several accounts over $10 million.
About a year ago I remember an article quoting Lending Club as having 25 accounts of more than $1 million, it looks like they doubled that number last year. This doesn’t include all the big money investors at LC Advisors, their private placement fund for accredited investors. That has grown from zero to $80 million under management in the last year.
Prosper Crosses $300 Million in Total New Loans
It was a big week for round number milestones. Prosper also sent out a press release earlier this week announcing they have surpassed $300 million in new loans issues since their inception.
While Prosper’s announcement was eclipsed by Lending Club, it is healthy for the industry to have two fast growing players. Now, I will be even more impressed when we can see these higher numbers trickle down to the bottom line. Both companies, particularly Lending Club, should be making serious inroads towards profitability in coming months.
The other interesting tidbit is that the total number of retail investors at Lending Club has more than doubled in less than a year from 20,600 in Mar 2011 (as listed in the GAO report) to 50,000 today.
By the way, in case it wasn’t noticed, the reason for the unusually rapid start to the month at Lending Club is because their was no end of month “surge” in January. But now that it’s done things will settle down to the more standard 1-2 million a day pace for the rest of the month.
Pretty amazing. I just added another 1k to my LC account, up to $13k now with them. I plan to add about $1k per month all of 2012.
@Dan, The number of new retail investors is certainly very impressive at Lending Club. They are clearly doing a good job of attracting new investors. As for the end of month bump, it seems like that has moved into the first couple of days of the month now. The start of January also produced big numbers.
@Danny, Good for you. I am also putting new money to work into both Lending Club and Prosper.
Danny……..You’re aware that you can get the 1.5% bonus if you’re depositing automatically every month?
Peter………Yeah, I noticed that last month too.
@Dan (or anyone else) – any more info on that 1.5% bonus? Didn’t know LC had an auto-deposit promo.
Larry V/others…………To the best of my knowledge this is an ongoing deal but you should probably check with your rep to confirm.
Now before someone asks where all this information is listed on the site………..I haven’t the slightest idea, but that’s how I’ve been getting the bonus & I know of others who have as well. So, please keep in mind that I’m writing all this from memory & from when I initially set it up many months ago.
Lending Club will give you a 1.5% bonus on automatic RECURRING deposits of $500 or more per week, per every other week or per month.
For example, to set up the “monthly” bonus, click “transfer”, fill in the “transfer amount” & click “repeat”. Choose “weekly”, “every other week”, or “monthly” Fill in the appropriate info. for the inclusive CONSECUTIVE months. Then click the “add funds” button at the bottom of the page. Then once the funds are in your account you need to invest all of the deposit within the next 30 days. Folio purchases DO NOT count. Ok, so then 35-40 days after your 1st month’s recurring deposit & assuming you’ve satisfied the above requirement, you will see your bonus automatically added to your balance. The amount will also appear in your “account details” page on the line that says “referral bonus”. That’s it, you need not do anything else for the bonus to be activated/disbursed.
@Larry, Dan is right about the bonuses. They don’t make it public knowledge but it is one of the few Lending Club bonuses that has stayed constant now for some time. There is guarantee that it will stay that way, but it appears to still be in place. I would talk to your LC rep about it.
Dan and Peter – Thanks, have a great weekend.
wow, no, i had NO clue about the recurring deposit bonus. thanks for that info! I will definitely contact LC about it asap and get this going.
Larry/Danny………You’re welcome. You may want to confirm with your rep but my understanding is that if you follow the steps I’ve laid out then the bonus kicks in automatically.
Peter………….And people say I never do anything pro bono 🙂
@Dan, Your generosity knows no bounds…. Seriously, though, thanks for mentioning it. I am getting that bonus on my recurring deposits and they do appear to happen automatically.
Anyone know if there is a similar bonus at Prosper?
RoyS……….I’m not 100% sure, but I don’t think so. You should suggest it to Glenn from Prosper when he comes by. If he doesn’t respond to you in a few hours just leave it to me. I’ll make a disparaging (but accurate) remark about Prosper & he’ll rush right over. 🙂
@Roy/@Dan, I am fairly certain there is no equivalent bonus on Prosper but I will report back if hear anything different.
Ok, where the hell is Glenn from Prosper? It’s raining in the Bay Area today & I just hope that his absence doesn’t indicate that one of the Prosper higher ups decided to suddenly implement my suggestion to have him reassigned out onto the rainy sidewalks. 🙂
Come back & say hi Glenn. I promise not to give you any grief………….at least for one day.
Just seeing this thread for the first time. Prosper does not currently have a bonus for auto-deposit, but it’s certainly an interesting idea. Thanks for the tip.
BTW – I don’t read every thread unless I’ve already commented and thus get auto-emails. Thus, if you have a question I am not responding to, feel free to email me at gmillar at Prosper and I’ll answer you privately or publicly if you include a link to the forum.
Thanks,
Glenn G. Millar
Prosper Employee
@Glenn, Thanks for the clarification.