Earlier today, the total amount of dollars borrowed through p2p lenders in this country crossed over $500 million. While on the one hand this is just a round number that doesn’t really mean anything, on the other hand it acknowledges the rapid growth of this industry.
Here is where we stand as of this writing as far as total loans funded through Lending Club and Prosper since they started:
Lending Club: $268,516,425
Prosper: $231,495,530
Prosper began operations in 2006 and Lending Club in 2007, so they both have a few years of history now under their belts. What is most interesting to me is the growth in the last 12 months. Of this half a billion dollars, $192 million of it has come in the last 12 months. So while it took around five years to reach the first half billion, the second half billion will likely happen within 18 months, maybe even sooner.
So congratulations to Lending Club and Prosper. Now let’s get back to work.
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.