StreetShares is a marketplace lender focused on lending and investing for veterans; company has announced partnership with JPMorgan to launch the StreetShares Foundation which will promote veteran-owned businesses through a $10,000 monthly contribution from JPMorgan for veteran small business awards; StreetShares will manage the monthly veteran small business awards with the $10,000 divided between first, second and third place businesses each month; awards will be given based on public voting. Source
Small business marketplace lender Bizfi.com has announced a new milestone; cumulative originations reached $2 billion in December; firm offers direct loans and provides a range of financing solutions for US small businesses including loans from alternative lenders and the Small Business Administration; platform has over 45 funding partners. Source
The Marketplace Lending Association has added eOriginal as its newest member; eOriginal was founded in 1996 and has been actively involved in the integration of electronic documentation throughout the financial services industry; it currently provides solutions for marketplace lenders and its expertise will significantly support the goals of the Marketplace Lending Association. Source
The Ranger Direct Lending Fund is trading at a discount to its NAV in part due to effects from issues at Argon Credit; the Fund had exposure of $28 million to Argon when it announced its bankruptcy in December 2016; while it said the Fund would see little effect from the exposure it has now announced a write-down from holdings in the Princeton Alternative Income fund which was affected by Argon Credit; further developments continue to occur and volatility is expected to continue for the Fund's share price. Source
In a recent interview, SoFi CEO Mike Cagney stated, "We feel very confident that in 2017 you'll be able to have a SoFi bank account with a debit and/or credit card."; further details are not known on how SoFi plans to offer deposit accounts; Cagney stated the company is working on two or three initiatives; back in July Cagney told investors that getting a traditional bank license was not a viable solution; the company may be able to leverage the OCC's recently announced nonbank fintech charter. Source
Lidya has raised $1.25 million to expand its financing services for small and medium enterprises in Africa; the funding round was led by Accion Venture Lab and will help the company enhance its credit scoring for small businesses and improve access to small business funding; it is targeting $4.9 million in loans for its first year of business. Source
Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA) has provided ratings and released more details on Marlette Funding's Marlette Funding Trust 2017-1 (MFT 2017-1) securitization; the transaction is valued at $257.44 million and includes consumer loans from Marlette; the portfolio includes three tranches rated A to BB; the majority of the loans are contained in tranche A which accounts for 80%. Source
Funding Circle has revised its credit underwriting model for its secured property loans offered to SMEs; the new credit underwriting model has been adjusted based on three years of secured property loan data from the platform; the new secured property loan underwriting model will increase rates for certain secured property loans and also expand the firm's secured property loan risk bands beyond A+ and A. Source
P2P-Banking.com has released international lending volumes for July; Zopa topped the list with originations of EUR119.6 million ($USD141.9 million) for the month; report includes a number of milestones including cumulative lending of GBP2.5 billion ($3.28 billion) for Zopa and GBP2 billion ($2.63 billion) for RateSetter; the report does not include data from US P2P lending platforms. Source
Fintech Global provides the top ten deals for the quarter; financing from the top ten deals was $658 million and accounted for 84% of the sector's total financing; Chinese P2P lender Tuandaiwang was the quarter's financing leader obtaining $262.6 million and was the only Asian fintech company in the top ten; Europe reported the majority of top ten financings with five funding deals. Source