The company's revenue increased from GBP20.6 million ($26.38 million) in 2015 to GBP33.2 million ($42.52 million) in 2016; its earnings also improved with a GBP -5.8 million (-$7.43 million) loss versus GBP -8.8 million (-$11.27 million) in 2015 and the company reported a fourth quarter operating profit; the 2016 results also showed loan originations increasing by 30% to GBP689 million ($882.4 million) in 2016. Source
Zopa launched its Plus product one year ago; the Plus product is the firm's highest risk and highest return offering; investors are reporting a 6% short-term return for the loan investments which fall in two additional risk categories: D and E; since introduced the platform has lent more than 100 million British pounds ($124 million) from approximately 9,000 investors. Source
Zopa has promised its investors it will speed up the time for selling loans on the platform after investors complained of loan sale times taking weeks; the platform has identified this as an issue, reporting in a blog post, "Recently, some of our processes have been running slower than normal, resulting in it taking longer for you to sell loans and access your money early."; Senior Developer Joe Hutchinson says the platform has been working to upgrade its technology with steady progress and it has more enhancements planned which will provide more capacity on the server improving performance significantly over the next few weeks. Source
Zopa has announced it plans to apply for banking licenses; company will be the first alternative finance platform to seek licensing as a bank; CEO Jaidev Janardana wrote to clients on Wednesday with details on the company's plans; Zopa will seek to offer deposit accounts and new lending products; requires Prudential Regulation Authority and Financial Conduct Authority licenses which the company expects to take 15 to 24 months. Source
Zopa has made updates to its loan pricing valuations after recently reporting technical issues; affected investors will be receiving refunds based on the updated calculations; the firm says that it has resolved any issues and is reporting monthly loan volumes of GBP80 million ($104 million). Source
Giles Andrews launched Zopa, the industry's first peer-to-peer lending platform, in 2005; he has now taken on a new role as the chairman of MarketInvoice; MarketInvoice provides P2P financing for small business invoices giving them an alternative source for working capital; Giles Andrews will help the firm scale its business and reach its 2017 goal of 2 billion British pounds ($2.48 billion) in lending. Source
Crowdfund Insider talked with Zopa about 2016 and 2017; the firm had a successful year in 2016 despite the industry's challenges; highlights from the year included lending over 680 million British pounds ($855.02 million) to nearly 100,000 customers, becoming profitable, securitizing its first loan portfolio and announcing plans to launch a bank; in 2017 the firm plans to build on its success while also beginning plans for launching a bank with deposit accounts and overdraft alternatives by 2018; in its core business products, Zopa CEO Jaidev Janardana says the firm will be looking for new partnerships that support its auto finance, point of sale and personal loan businesses. Source
Crowdlending platform Lend raised CHF3.5 million ($3.47 million) from Polytech Ecosystem Ventures and other angel investors; the round will help the platform to continue building out their brand, upgrading their automation and increasing their marketing spend for Switzerland; Lend launched in January of 2016 and has thus far funded 300 loans; in addition to the funding Lend was also able to secure two new team members, Dr. Stefan Jaecklin, former head of Oliver Wyman Switzerland, and Dr. Luzius Anderegg, senior software developer at software company Ergon Informatik. Source
Žltý Melón's new offering for investors will allow them to lend money to homebuyers to help finance mortgage deposits; launched in 2012 the platform has facilitated EUR7 million (USD $8.2 million) to borrowers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia; the new loan offering, called the CashFree Hypo loan, will be available to anyone who has been approved for a standard mortgage by a bank in Slovakia. Source
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