Elevate's Center for the New Middle Class has released a study showing subprime consumers are limited in their ability to utilize credit balances or borrow from their social networks; the Center's study reports 70% of nonprime Americans couldn't cover an urgent expense of $500 or more with their savings and 64% wouldn't be able to borrow from friends and family; the Center's study amplifies the need for solutions targeting nonprime borrowers; Elevate's Center for the New Middle Class is currently undergoing research efforts to support nonprime credit access and personal financial management efficiencies. Source
Marketplace lending data analytics provider, Monja has announced a new daily valuation service for marketplace loans; the daily loan valuation service adds to the current reporting options for institutional investors and investment management clients, increasing the analytics for marketplace loan portfolio valuation offered by Monja; the announcement is a significant step for industry loan valuations; in comments regarding the announcement, James Wu, founder and CEO of Monja said: "Now fund managers don't need to wait 20 days after end of month to see how the portfolio has performed. This allows them to better position their portfolio and liquidity, while providing better portfolio visibility for their clients." Source
AI Assist in partnership with Conversica has launched the Conversica AI Sales Assistant for financial services; targeted users include alternative finance companies, merchant cash advance lenders and brokers, mortgage lenders and brokers, merchant processors, equipment leasers, debt consolidators and student loan providers; Conversica reports that the AI solution can significantly improve customer engagement specifically through follow up on incomplete funding applications. Source
Latin American online lender Afluenta has obtained the support of the Multilateral Investment Fund, an innovation lab of the Inter-American Development Bank, for development of a green loans product; the lender will provide the loans to individuals and businesses seeking financing for renewable energy equipment, energy-efficient appliances and other green energy related purchases; the development process for the green loans will include customized credit underwriting for energy efficient loans and borrowers. Source
AltFi Data is the leading public provider of data for the marketplace lending industry; its data platform, AltFi Data Analytics, aggregates data from originators in the UK, Europe and the US; AltFi Data manages indices and publishes analytics reports with support from the data platform; the addition of data from Prosper will make the platform's reporting more robust for the industry. Source
Online lending alternative credit data solutions provider Clarity Services has announced the release of Temporary Account Record, a solution for mitigating loan stacking; primarily focused on providing alternative credit data for the online lending market, the firm also began developing Temporary Account Record in 2013 to address the issue of loan stacking fraud; Temporary Account Record will complement the firm's data services by providing increased transparency on current loans and pending loan transactions. Source
Upstart has been steadily growing its online lending business and has now announced a new fundraising as well as the launch of a white label software as a service (SaaS) product; the fundraising will add $32.5 million in new capital from investors including: Rakuten, a large US-based asset manager, Third Point Ventures, Khosla Ventures and First Round Capital; Upstart has emerged with many significant developments in the online loan business including next-day funding and a robust proprietary credit underwriting platform built on machine learning and modern technology; with the evolution of the business, the firm has developed a new white label SaaS product called by Powered by Upstart which it is launching at LendIt USA; the service is an extension of the firm's proprietary credit underwriting system driven by machine learning and modern data science. Source
loanDepot has invested approximately $80 million in technology over the last 18 months and is announcing the launch of its proprietary digital lending platform, mello™; seeking to develop the fintech ecosystem of the future, the platform is beginning with three solutions: an intuitive web-based consumer portal, a state-of-the-art mobile point of sale system and a fully digital mortgage loan application experience; overall mello™ will be one of the fastest and most accurate lending systems in the industry; the firm has also opened a new 65,000 square foot mello™ tech campus in Irvine, CA to support the new platform. Source
Dianrong and FnConn have launched Chained Finance, a blockchain lending platform for supply chain companies; according to Soul Htite, founder and CEO of Dianrong, "Chained Finance creates a unique ecosystem that will provide supply chains with easier access to funding at competitive rates."; the companies report the platform could triple financing access for supply chain companies. Source
SoFi is one of the US's fastest growing alternative finance companies; the Financial Revolutionist talks with Mike Cagney about the firm's accomplishments, success factors and future objectives; Cagney provides insight on the firm's recent acquisition of Zenbanx and $500 million fundraising; discusses how these deals will drive growth for the firm and the other areas of the business the firm is working to expand. Source