LandlordInvest has launched the UK's first secured property P2P lending innovative finance individual savings account (IFISA); the firm offers 5% to 12% returns on its loans and investors can now invest tax free with the IFISA; platform investments include bridge loans and term loans for buy-to-rent landlords; most of the firm's loans are for amounts ranging from 30,000 British pounds ($37,895) to 750,000 British pounds ($947,363) with a payoff term of five years; process for offering the IFISA took less than two months with approval obtained by HM Revenue and Customs shortly after the firm's Financial Conduct Authority approval in December. Source
California-based Kountable is an invoice and trade financing platform currently offering financing for businesses in Rwanda; firm has secured a $150 million credit line from a private credit asset manager; funding will help the company to expand in the global trade finance market. Source
In March of 2016 Matt Harris of Bain Capital Ventures wrote on the future of alternative lending; many of his insights continue to hold in today's market despite challenges experienced in the final quarters of 2016; interestingly, Harris notes a wave of alternative lenders grouped in three categories with alternative lending 1.0 led by Lending Club, SoFi and OnDeck; cites alternative lending 2.0 as including high risk capital chasing market entrants and alternative lending 3.0 as emerging entrants with high potential and efficient business outlooks. Source
Fundrise has announced a Regulation A investment offering of Rise Companies Corp. which is the parent company of the investment platform Fundrise, LLC; the campaign is currently in a solicitation phase which its website says has generated interest of over $58 million from more than 4,350 users; the investment offering circular was initially filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on December 29, 2016; some details from the most recent amended offering circular include the following: offering of one million shares of Class B non-voting common stock, offer and sale of the shares is limited to investors who have purchased investments on the Fundrise platform. 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
The UK's oldest and biggest online lender will be cutting rates by 0.2% across all accounts for the third time in the last five months; Chief Product Officer Andrew Lawson told investors via email that since competitors have been cutting rates they also needed to continue their rate cuts and they could also see this trend continuing; left with a choice of cutting rates or lending to a risky borrower, Zopa opted to cut rates and keep their lending practices static. Source
A report from marketplace lender Funding Options says UK SMEs owe $3.25 billion in value added taxes (VAT); a leading factor affecting tax payments is late B2B payments creating an even greater opportunity for alternative financing in the region; Funding Options is promoting alternative solutions to help SMEs better manage their business taxes. Source
AutoGravity's mobile app services can now be accessed by consumers in 46 states; the firm first launched its mobile app in December 2016 for borrowers in California; the mobile app will now allow consumers in 46 states to obtain four financing offers for a new or used car. Source
TransUnion has introduced a fraud solution for businesses; the firm will market IDVision, a comprehensive solution that uses advanced analytics technology to interpret and analyze transactions for fraud detection; the solution can identify and alert businesses of fraud at the time of transaction and also monitor portfolios for fraudulent activity. Source
LendingRobot is launching a new fund for accredited high net worth investors and using a basket of new technologies to automate management of the fund; LendingRobot plans to use automated portfolio algorithms and automated platform investing to manage the fund; it will also use blockchain for fund reporting and fund auditing; Kadhim Shubber of Financial Times shares information on recent Lending Club performance as well as thoughts from UK-based fund P2PGI. Source