Ron Suber has invested in online commercial lending platform Money360 and will also join the firm as a strategic advisor; Money360 has been growing fast and estimates loan originations will exceed $500 million by 2017; the investment will add to Ron Suber's fintech portfolio which he is managing from a family office; his equity investment follows positive returns from loan investments on the platform. Source
Marketplace lending has evolved from personal loans to numerous verticals; Prime Meridian Capital Management discusses real estate lending and investment opportunities it offers in comparison to other real estate products; provides examples of platforms including ShareStates, Patch of Land, Realty Mogul, LendingHome and Money360; gives details on loans and the investing process for real estate platforms. Source
Coming up with a 20% down payment on a home can be quite a challenge, San Francisco based Unison is looking to offer help to these prospective buyers; a Unison deal typically involves the homebuyer putting down 10%, Unison putting down 10% and the remaining 80% would be borrowed; Unison charges a 2.5% fee and shares in 35% of future appreciation or depreciation; this allows for the homebuyers to keep payments lower and save on private mortgage insurance (PMI), which is required if the loan to value exceeds 80%; "We are partnering with the homeowners by investing alongside them in the house," Unison Co-CEO Jim Riccitelli told the San Francisco Chronicle; the Unison offering looks to replace local bay area assistance programs offered to lower income household and first time buyers. Source
Money360-affiliate M360 Advisors has registered with the South Korea Financial Supervisory Service; the registration allows institutional investors from South Korea to invest in the firm's real estate fund; the fund invests in secured US commercial real estate properties through bridge loans and offers global investors a high yield fixed income alternative; the fund has already received $65 million from a South Korean institutional investor and is planning for investment of $250 million in the first half of 2017; the fund is managed to provide international tax efficient investing along with high yield fixed income returns and has a number of other foreign investors including investors in China, Singapore, South Africa, Europe, Canada, the Netherlands and Kuwait. Source
Lending as a service fintech LendKey announced record growth in March 2022, surpassing its previous record set in 2018.
A new report by NextGen Crowdfunding documents increasing use of Reg. A+ as the regulatory umbrella for real estate crowdfunding and other financial offerings; Reg. A+ was finalized in June 2015 as a means for non-accredited investors to access private offerings; companies can raise up to $50 million per year under Reg. A+; across all sectors, 131 companies to date have filed under Reg. A+, with 38% of these filings being by real estate and financial services platforms and many others being IT startups; roughly half of the filers are using "Tier 1" rules for Reg. A+, meaning they will continue to register in individual states as well as at the federal level, and half are filing "Tier 2", seeking national fundraising scope while avoiding the added prudence of vetting against state rules. Source
Lend Academy reviews a session on applying blockchain to real estate after attending MIPIM, the world's largest conference dedicated to real estate; one company helping run a pilot is velox.RE; company is working with Chicago's Cook County on a program for transferring and tracking property titles as well as filing liens; the three perceived benefits are: a permanent, immutable public record that is immune to well-funded nation-state attacks, a path towards paperless land transfers and so-called "e-deeds" and reduced costs for offices across the country that want to upgrade electronic document processing systems; other applications for blockchain in real estate include tracking property ownership in emerging markets, real estate crowdfunding and tracking/transferring solar energy. Source
Income& has developed a new real estate investment product, the Prime-Rated Individual Mortgage-Backed Obligation (PRIMO) and is one of LendIt's finalists for the 2017 Emerging Real Estate Platform award; the product allows investors to invest in secured mortgage loans and targets yields of 6% or more; it is open for investment to accredited investors and investment advisers and the firm also has plans to offer the product to all investors. Source
Acre Homes aims to build a modern home ownership experience, and with the help of data from Plaid, applications are a breeze. Learn how.
The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has granted full authorization to Proplend; the FCA continues to review authorization applications, primarily focusing on secured lending platforms; Proplend is a secured commercial real estate property P2P lender offering three tranches for investors; returns on the platform range from 5% to 12% with loans of 250,000 British pounds ($307,718) to 5,000,000 British pounds ($6,154,350); the platform has funded 11.5 million British pounds ($14.16 million) of loans since inception with zero defaults; it has plans to offer clients an innovative finance individual savings account however it will likely not be available until 2018. Source