During the week I share the latest marketplace 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.
China’s Dianrong to Seek Up to $500 Million, Riding P2P Lending Wave from The Wall Street Journal – The next funding round for Soul Htite’s Dianrong will be for up to $500M.
An Overview of Marketplace Lending and the Best Practices for Investing in the Asset Class from Orchard – Detailed overview of marketplace lending including best practices for investors by Jeremy Todd.
Marketplace Lending Perspectives with Peter Renton (YouTube video) from Experian – Here is a video of an interview I did recently with Experian for their marketplace lending perspectives series.
Online Lender Upstart Taps Uber Marketing Executive Mike Osborn for CMO Job from Re/code – Interesting new hire from Upstart this week, they have hired a marketing exec from Uber as new CMO.
Lending Club Opens to Retail Investors in Alabama, Kentucky, Michigan, and the District of Columbia from PR Newswire – Lending Club is now open to investors in AL, KY, MI and DC (press release).
Former SBA Chief Weighs in on the Rapidly Changing World of Financing from The Wall Street Journal – Former SBA chief Karen Mills talks to The Wall Street Journal about online lending and more.
Taming the crowd: What does Fundrise’s new REIT mean for crowdfunding? from The Real Deal – Real estate crowdfunding is evolving with this $50M e-REIT coming soon from Fundrise.
Funding Circle SME Income Fund Raises £150m from AltFi – Great news for Funding Circle. They raised £150M for their new SME Income fund.
What is the future of peer to peer? from AltFi – Kevin Caley of UK platform ThinCats gives his perspective on the evolution and future of P2P lending.
Is P2P The Future of Lending? from Betakit – Some of the Canadian p2p lending leaders got together this past week for a panel discussion.
Government opens up ISAs to crowdfunding debt from Citywire – The UK government is expanding the Innovative Finance ISA to include crowdfunding debt.
RealtyMogul.com Shows Its Command of the Capital Stack from GlobeSt – Real estate crowdfunding platform Realty Mogul completes a breakthrough debt and equity transaction.
Ex-Barclays CEO: Banks are about to have an ‘Uber moment’ — and it’s going to be painful from Business Insider – “The big question for banks is whether they can move fast enough to get ahead of the wave of change”. Insightful article by Oscar Williams-Grut.
China P2P Lender Lufax Plans IPO Worth Up to $5 Billion from The Wall Street Journal – The Lufax IPO may be the biggest p2p lending IPO ever when it comes to pass next year.
Lighter Capital raises $100M fund, plans to make 500 investments in startups from GeekWire – Lighter Capital gets $100M commitment from Community Investment Management, also closes a $9M Series B.
From the Lend Academy Forum
The Lend Academy forum is where investors go to discuss p2p lending. Below are some topics that were being discussed this week.
How could LC update their website so casually? – Lending Club has made a change to the “Adjustments for Past-Due Notes” page.
Borrower with 9 recent inquiries – A Lending Club investor asks about a loan that has 9 recent inquiries.
Roth IRA seems to have lower return rate – Investors talk about the many reasons that returns may differ between Lending Club accounts.
Peter Renton is the chairman and co-founder of LendIt Fintech, the world’s first and largest digital media and events company focused on fintech. Peter has been writing about fintech since 2010 and he is the author and creator of the Fintech One-on-One Podcast, the first and longest-running fintech interview series. Peter has been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The New York Times, CNBC, CNN, Fortune, NPR, Fox Business News, the Financial Times, and dozens of other publications.