Company is offering 7.7 million shares at $12 - $14 per share and may raise up to $124 million; Elevate will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange with ticker ELVT; UBS is leading the IPO with participation from Credit Suisse and Jefferies; according to Elevate CEO Ken Rees: "When we began our IPO process over a year ago, we told you we would grow revenue and profits throughout 2016, while continuing to provide the most responsible credit products in our space. In fact, we improved the company in almost every way." Source
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The P2P Global Investments Trust has reported February performance; NAV return of 0.38% was helped by the firm's current buyback program and is the 33rd consecutive month of positive NAV returns since inception; 12 month return is 3.92% and inception to date return is 14.20%; investment manager is actively diversifying to reduce exposure to US consumer loans and shift to European real estate and bonds. Source
Scott first looks back at 2016, how Lending Club was able to overcome adversity and highlights some of the leading lenders in the space like SoFi and OnDeck; he makes the comparison that online lending is a lot like online retail and there are many lessons to be learned; just like customers in retail the customers in banking do not want to go to the local branch to get a loan, they want to have a seamless digital experience like they already have with the likes of Amazon; Scott offers three ideas to define the next decade for a stronger industry, evolve the customer experience, unleash the platform's potential and amplify the core innovations that serve customers; he finishes up with a few questions from audience members. Source
On Friday last week Capital Float struck a major deal with Amazon India to provide working capital solutions to Amazon's sellers. Amazon India is tied for largest e-commerce market share in India (with Flipkart) and Amazon relies exclusively on third party merchants in India. This partnership launched in October 2016 and has already successfully disbursed thousands of loans to businesses in the Amazon network. They will provide financing to companies in the smartphone, consumer electronics, consumer durables and fashion verticals to start with and they will add new verticals over time.
We are big fans of Gaurav and Sashank, the founders of Capital Float, and their mission in India. Capital Float is the largest digital lending platform to small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) in India with a specific focus on working capital management. They cater to over 5,000 SMEs and they have originated over $120 million in loans since their inception in 2013. They are one of the best funded fintech companies in India having raised over $40 million in venture capital from SAIF, Sequoia, Aspada and Creation Investments Capital Management. Most importantly, the founders come from large enterprises where they managed SME supply chain finance for years, so they know the pain points for SMEs that must deal with working capital cash flow management.
The Indian SME market is about $250 billion and it is ripe for disruption. Companies like Capital Float are well positioned to use technology to solve financial service infrastructure problems and to provide much needed access to capital to high quality companies. The best way to reach these companies is through established digital networks like the one Amazon India provides. We expect to see many similar deals with additional e-commerce marketplaces, travel portals, taxi aggregators and other online marketplaces. Capital Float already has similar deals with other leading Indian e-commerce players including Flipkart, Snapdeal and Shopclues.
For more information on the Indian fintech market you can watch the video from LendIt USA 2017 featuring Capital Float as well as Lendingkart, Finomena, Indifi, IndiaLends (PitchIt China winner 2016) and Quona Capital.
Marketplace crowdfunding platform Lenderwize is reporting success as the first online lending and project financing platform for telecommunications businesses; the firm offers invoice financing, project financing and equity financing with rates of return averaging 6% to 14% annually; they recently surveyed telcos in the industry finding among other statistics a cash flow market opportunity of $22 billion; the platform now has $7.3 million in borrower requests and $10 million committed from institutional investors and six equity investors; it is also expecting new capital from business development presentations at TechFluence's Fintech Meets Telecom in Frankfurt and the Fintech Circle and AngelDen's Pitch in London. Source