Lend Academy reviews a session on applying blockchain to real estate after attending MIPIM, the world's largest conference dedicated to real estate; one company helping run a pilot is velox.RE; company is working with Chicago's Cook County on a program for transferring and tracking property titles as well as filing liens; the three perceived benefits are: a permanent, immutable public record that is immune to well-funded nation-state attacks, a path towards paperless land transfers and so-called "e-deeds" and reduced costs for offices across the country that want to upgrade electronic document processing systems; other applications for blockchain in real estate include tracking property ownership in emerging markets, real estate crowdfunding and tracking/transferring solar energy. Source
News Roundup
This page contains an archive of the Global Newsletter summaries and the weekly fintech news roundups.
Every day the Fintech Nexus news team scours the globe for the most important stories of the day to include in our daily newsletter.
Then every Saturday we bring you our weekly news roundup of the top 10 fintech stories of the week with commentary from Peter Renton.
To join our newsletter community please subscribe here.
Last week Prosper closed their Series G, raising $50 million from an investment fund co-managed by FinEx Asia and LPG Capital based in Hong Kong; sources say the post money valuation was $550 million, approximately a 70% drop from their high in 2015; Peter Renton reflects on the investment and the current state of the market. Source
Prosper has announced a funding deal which has been in development since August; the firm has received an investment commitment for $5 billion over the next two years from a consortium of investors including affiliates of New Residential Investment Corp., Jefferies Group LLC, Third Point LLC and an entity of which Soros Fund Management LLC is the principal investment manager; the consortium is also being offered an equity stake which could account for as much as 35% ownership in the company and is expected to help promote a long term business relationship; the committed investment will represent a substantial increase for the firm which is likely to report approximately $2.2 billion in loan originations for 2016. Source
Prosper originated $2.9 billion in 2017 and now has surpassed $11 billion in total loans. Source
Prosper's originations were $775 million in the second quarter of 2017, up from $586 million in the first quarter; adjusted EBITDA was $6.7 million in the second quarter and the company was cash flow positive; Prosper had their first profitable quarter in Q3 of 2014 before growing significantly and subsequently falling back into the red; whole loan sales represented 94% of total volume in Q2; Prosper has originated a total of $9.7 billion in loans; Prosper also announced closing a $500 million securitization; PMIT 2017-2 was rated by Kroll Bond Rating Agency, Inc. and Fitch Ratings with the Class A pool receiving an A rating. Source
Prosper recently published their third quarter results; the company grew originations 6% from the previous quarter to $821 million; reported a net loss of $26.9 million largely due to non-cash charges related to warrants as part of the consortium deal announced this year. Source
Deepak Lalit, Managing Director of LendIt Advisors reviews the public companies attending LendIt and their recent track record. Source
Investors across the US will now be able to invest in real estate loans originated by Groundfloor with as little as $10. Source
Lend Academy provides insight on online lending performance trends in their article; details interest rate changes and trends from 2010 to present; from 2010 to 2014 returns were relatively stable; in 2015, Lending Club interest rates increased with the Fed's first rate increase in many years however the rate increases were primarily focused on the higher risk loans; capital market investors began slowing investment in 2015 and reduced investments even further after the resignation of Lending Club CEO Renaud Laplanche in May 2016; interest rates at Lending Club have been gradually rising since late 2015, specifically in the higher risk loans; rate increases were put in place to help to offset some degradation in performance; Lend Academy will explore recent vintage performance in part two. Source