Upstart Co-Founder Dave Girouard talks with Forbes about alternative credit data modeling and his firm Upstart; Girouard's inspiration for Upstart came from his experience at Google where he was involved in developing algorithmic models for evaluating candidates and their potential success as Google employees; a third of Upstart's management team comes from Google and the firm is now building advanced credit models that utilize machine learning and modern technology to make credit more accessible for borrowers; the firm is targeting loan originations of $1 billion in 2017; Upstart will be at LendIt USA 2017 and is announcing a new white label software as a service product called Powered by Upstart. Source
The US District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a decision in Madden v. Midland Funding, LLC; in determining whether New York or Delaware law governed the contractual relationship of the parties, the judge ruled that applying Delaware law would violate usury policies in New York which limit interest to 25% per year. Source
Small business online multi-lender Lendio has announced the launch of a new lending program for franchises; in addition to business loans, participating lenders will have access to new technology, comprehensive training, branded marketing tools, partnerships and Lendio's franchise support team; Lendio facilitates lending by matching online applicants with lenders; the firm has originated over $240 million in loans. Source
Prosper has announced it will be increasing rates on its high-quality loans and lowering the rate on its HR rated loans; as of March 2 rates will increase on loans rated AA, A and B with an increase of 60 bps, 50 bps and 20 bps respectively; interest rates on HR rated loans will decrease by 10 bps. Source
LendIt has announced a list of keynote speakers for LendIt USA 2017 on March 6 and 7; keynote speakers will cover the industry's most important topics and innovations; as fintech regulation and a new presidential administration influence the market, LendIt USA 2017 will also be featuring some of the industry's most influential government officials including Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Thomas Curry, comptroller of the currency for the US Department of the Treasury and Patrick McHenry, US congressman. Source
LendUp has secured a new $100 million credit facility from Victory Park Capital bringing its total financing to $325 million; the firm has also announced a new lending milestone, with loan originations surpassing $1 billion from more than 3.3 million loans; the firm was launched in 2012 and seeks to support the emerging middle class through lending and financial education. Source
VPC Specialty Lending has released its January monthly report which shows balance sheet investments increasing to 58% of the fund's net asset value; 19 of the firm's 24 platform investments are now balance sheet focused; balance sheet investments in January included Cognical and Kueski; balance sheet investments over the past twelve months have been successful with balance sheet loans returning 5.6% while marketplace loans returned -0.8%. Source
While fintech innovation has greatly evolved in recent years, there is still much more to be accomplished; one area available for significant market growth is financial inclusion; Lend Academy talks about fintech innovation for the underserved bank customer in their article; LendIt will be running a financial inclusion track this year at LendIt USA to help support development of this market opportunity. Source
P2P-banking.com has reported international P2P lending originations for February; Funding Circle led originations with 121.4 million euros ($127.67 million) in loans originated; Funding Circle also surpassed 2 billion British pounds ($2.46 billion) in cumulative loan originations during the month; Zopa and RateSetter followed Funding Circle with Zopa reporting 89.8 million euros and RateSetter reporting originations of 72.3 million euros; the list does not include P2P lenders in the US. Source
Urjanet has raised $20 million in new financing for its utility focused data services business; the firm tracks utility data from 4,000 utilities in 30 countries and plans to expand its data services for utility payments to lenders seeking alternative credit data; investors in the recent funding round included Oak HC/FT, Grotech Ventures, Correlation Ventures, Imlay Investments and the Georgia Research Alliance. Source