The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a financial government agency overseen by the Financial Stability Oversight Council, held a fintech forum discussing the industry; industry speakers included Ram Ahluwalia from PeerIQ and Matt Burton from Orchard; SEC speakers included Mary Jo White and Michael Piwowar; Mary Jo White focused on fintech responsibility suggesting thorough testing of various aspects of the business before introduction; Michael Piwowar focused on fintech sandbox testing and suggested that the SEC should be the lead agency regulating fintech; in an announcement on Monday, Mary Jo White also said she would be leaving her role in January. Source
Prospect Marketplace Lending Corp. has filed papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a fund investing in marketplace loans; the firm has filed an N-8A and an N-2 indicating its investment company status and plans for managing a closed-end fund; the closed-end fund will invest 80% of its assets in marketplace lending investments. Source
P2Binvestor has raised $7.7 million in a Series A1 funding led by Rockies Venture Club, an angel investor network in Colorado, and Future Venture Capital Co., a Japanese venture capital firm; according to CEO and Co-Founder Krista Morgan, funds will be used to grow operations, sales and marketing departments; improvements to the platform will also be made; Morgan stated, "We're seeing more interest in our model as venture funding hits a two-year low and more entrepreneurs are looking for ways to grow their business while preserving their equity using good-quality, flexible debt." Source
Millenium Trust Company has hired Tom Daley to lead the Alternative Solutions Group; Millenium Trust is a leading provider of custody solutions in the marketplace lending industry; Mr. Daley will be focused on adviser and registered investment adviser business development, seeking to expand the firm's alternative assets under custody from fund managers and financial advisers. Source
Electronic document management is a key aspect of marketplace lending and eOriginal is one of the ecosystem's document management providers; Lend Academy interviews Steve Bisbee of eOriginal in their podcast; eOriginal has been in business since 1996, first focusing on original electronic documents for mortgages, then working with auto financing and expanding into many other areas of lending; in 2012 the company began exploring marketplace lending involvement after the suggestion from an investment bank; eOriginal's first marketplace lending customer was SoFi in 2013 and they have added many more since then; as a well established business, eOriginal also has a good perspective on the regulatory requirements involving data integrity which is also helping industry progression. Source
Roofstock, an online marketplace in the single-family rental sector, raised $20 million in Series B funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, Nyca Partners, QED Investors and SV Angel; they plan to use the proceeds to ramp up national expansion, invest in product development and roll out an asset management platform as they intend to reach domestic and global investors. Source
Small business, marketplace lender, Kabbage, has announced two new executive hires; the executive hires will focus on technology and data as the company seeks to expand and gain greater market share in online small business lending; Amala Duggirala will join Kabbage as the chief technology officer and Rama Rao will be the chief data officer. Source
Real estate crowdfunder, Fundrise, has made its investment division into an independent company, RSE Capital Partners; the goal was to separate and focus on the two functions of capital raising - via Fundrise with its eReit platform - and capital providing to real estate projects; RSE will focus on financing real estate deals from $20 million to $100 million, while they examine ways to make terms more flexible. Source
UpLift, a new fintech startup offering a point-of-sale financing service for travel purchases, has partnered with Golden Nugget Hotel and The Mark Travel Corporation; the companies will utilize UpLift's financing solutions at the point-of-sale making installment payments an option for customers; UpLift also says it offers the industry's lowest rates for the payment services. Sources