Online real estate lender and crowdfunding platform Patch of Land has hired Matthew Zall to serve as its new chief investment product officer; the new hire occurs as Patch of Land plans to expand into the single-family rental market, identifying an opportunity to capitalize on the 24 million US single-family units valued at over $6 trillion; Zall's experience includes single-family loan structuring at Blackstone Group subsidiary B2R Finance; he has also worked as a commercial real estate trader at J.P. Morgan and Bear Stearns; in comments regarding the new hire, Paul Deitch, Patch of Land's chief executive officer said, "The addition of Matt enables us to continue the expansion of our marketplace to fully serve the lending needs of more than 10 million Americans who directly invest in single-family residential properties and need consistent, reliable access to capital to fuel their businesses." Source
The CredAgility platform is relied on by lenders globally for customer management solutions; enhancements to the newly released version 7.3 include expanded customer level views for client service representatives, improvements for compliance management, added self-service options and improved functionality for email and customer outreach. Source
Upstart's Dave Girourad talks with TechCrunch about the company's new fundraising round which is adding new capital of $32.5 million; the new capital brings total funding to $85 million and this round's investors included Rakuten, Third Point Ventures, Khosla Ventures and First Round Capital; the fundraising will help the firm launch a new software as a service product called Powered by Upstart, an extension of its proprietary credit underwriting platform which utilizes machine learning and modern data science; Upstart will be releasing the new product at LendIt USA 2017. Source
Jim Cramer of Mad Money talks with Mike Cagney of SoFi to discuss the unique business model of the privately managed business which has originated over $16 billion in loans and recently closed a $500 million fundraising round; Cagney provides details on the student loan refinancing business and the company's unique focus on supporting customers in many different aspects of their personal and financial lives; notes SoFi's return on equity advantages over banks and the market opportunity it is targeting as it builds out its business. Source
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has opened a comment period for information on alternative credit data. The CFPB issued the request for information (RFI) on February 16 and the comment period is open until May 19. Responses to the RFI can be found here.
The CFPB, established by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act and led by Director Richard Cordray, is interested in obtaining information on the currently available sources of alternative credit data in the market and alternative credit data underwriting models being used by fintech innovators.
The CFPB's RFI follows an increasingly emerging financial inclusion trend in fintech. The market has seen a number of new companies seeking to make credit more accessible for thin file borrowers. Meanwhile, innovation around alternative credit data is also surfacing. The CFPB seems to be taking an active role in this emerging trend and will likely publish a comprehensive report on its findings and perspective following the comment period. Source
Credibly discusses the evolution of the fintech market and the firm's current market position in their featured blog post; central to their discussion is the integration of data science into all aspects of finance and the intersection of data science and bank partnerships; in what Credibly calls Generation 3.0 of fintech, online lenders are developing lending business models which also include software as a service (SaaS) products that are an extension of their proprietary technology; Credibly discusses the benefits of SaaS technology and the strengths banks present in partnering with fintech innovators; together the user experience is only expected to improve as more partnerships are formed throughout the industry. Sponsored Blog Post
OnDeck is one of the market's leading small business online lenders and they have taken an active role in industry self-regulation specifically around improved transparency for business borrowers; in their featured blog post they discuss the market's landscape and their lending technology partnership integration efforts; they also provide details on their involvement in developing industry best practices through development of the Association for Enterprise Opportunity and the Innovation Lending Platform Association; this involvement has resulted in the creation of the SMART Box which they also detail in their blog post. Sponsored Blog Post
ApplePie Capital is the marketplace lending leader in franchise business loans; in their featured blog post, CEO Denise Thomas discusses the investment opportunity that the firm's platform presents and ApplePie Capital's business model; cites five reasons for investing in franchise debt including the stable, high single-digit to low double-digit returns with lower risk than many of the market's competing fixed income products. Sponsored Blog Post
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
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