Electronic document management is a key aspect of marketplace lending and eOriginal is one of the ecosystem's document management providers; Lend Academy interviews Steve Bisbee of eOriginal in their podcast; eOriginal has been in business since 1996, first focusing on original electronic documents for mortgages, then working with auto financing and expanding into many other areas of lending; in 2012 the company began exploring marketplace lending involvement after the suggestion from an investment bank; eOriginal's first marketplace lending customer was SoFi in 2013 and they have added many more since then; as a well established business, eOriginal also has a good perspective on the regulatory requirements involving data integrity which is also helping industry progression. Source
News Roundup
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Millenium Trust Company has hired Tom Daley to lead the Alternative Solutions Group; Millenium Trust is a leading provider of custody solutions in the marketplace lending industry; Mr. Daley will be focused on adviser and registered investment adviser business development, seeking to expand the firm's alternative assets under custody from fund managers and financial advisers. Source
The UK-based, wealth management company, raised £30 million to help expand their product offering across the UK; investors include Convoy, a Hong Kong-listed firm of independent financial advisers, as well as existing backers Schroders, Balderton Capital, Pentech, Armada Investment Group and Nigel Wray; the funding is subject to the approval of the Financial Conduct Authority. Source
P2Binvestor has raised $7.7 million in a Series A1 funding led by Rockies Venture Club, an angel investor network in Colorado, and Future Venture Capital Co., a Japanese venture capital firm; according to CEO and Co-Founder Krista Morgan, funds will be used to grow operations, sales and marketing departments; improvements to the platform will also be made; Morgan stated, "We're seeing more interest in our model as venture funding hits a two-year low and more entrepreneurs are looking for ways to grow their business while preserving their equity using good-quality, flexible debt." Source
Accion Venture Lab, a seed stage investment vehicle for financial inclusion firm Accion, has sold its stake in Varthana; Varthana provides specialized loans and services so people in India can afford to attend private schools; Accion Venture Lab's first investment into Varthana was in 2013; Varthana recently raised $14 million in the spring of 2016. Source
New government fintech initiatives are trending across the globe and the European Commission (EC) is one of the most recent regulatory agencies to add a fintech group; the EC is the governing regulator for the European Union; it has announced a Financial Technology Task Force (FTTF) to be co-chaired by DG FISMA and DG CONNECT; the FTTF will facilitate regulatory communication in the areas of financial regulation, digital business, competition and consumer protection. Source
Scott Morrison, Australia's treasurer, spoke about regtech at the Fintech Australia Summit; the treasurer discussed a regtech collision occurring in fintech where both crowdfunding firms and traditional banks are benefiting from increased technological innovation around regulation; likely that the marketplace lending ecosystem could see expansion in regulatory technology innovation. Source
The company has raised $26.5 million to expand its digital transactions management business and bolster the staff to increase product development; the round was led by LLR Partners, a Philadelphia-based private equity firm; CEO Stephen Bisbee said, "We are seeing more opportunity in front of us than we're able to execute with our current staff." Source
LendIt's Jason Jones writes about the marketplace lending opportunity for bank partnerships in a Lend Academy article; in 2016, many marketplace lenders reported partnerships with banks, exemplifying this new opportunity; three main types of partnerships have been prevalent including bank-fintech-bank (BFB), fintech-fintech-bank (FFB) and bank-fintech-fintech (BFF); co-branding or white labeling has also been a factor in the partnerships; some traditional banks have chosen to take the full cost of developing their own online lending platform including, Goldman Sachs and PingAn, however many banks are finding partnerships more cost efficient; LendIt's bank partnerships webinar on Wednesday will highlight this trend. Source
The Ranger Direct Lending closed-end fund is seeking to raise £40 million through the sale of new shares; fund is currently at £236 million; company will offer new C shares in December; the fund's last two share offerings have been for Z shares with trading symbol ZDP; the Ranger Direct Lending Fund has been steadily leading returns for UK marketplace lending funds in 2016. Source