Summer may be winding down, but major P2P headlines continue unabated. Of note this week, SoFi announced a huge ~$1B round led by Softbank (at an implied valuation of $4B). Avant also announced another $339M in debt financing. Read more about it below, along with other interesting articles we found this week:
Online Lender Social Finance’s Latest Fundraising Implies $4 Billion Valuation (WSJ, Aug 19, 2015) Big news, as the new valuation more than doubles that of the prior round in February and would place SoFi in the top-30 U.S. banks by market cap.
Big Banks Are Betting On Online Lender Avant (Fortune, Aug 20, 2015) Avant continues to makes funding headlines, closing both a $139 million asset-backed securitization led by Jefferies and $200 million credit facility co-led by J.P. Morgan and Credit Suisse.
Zopa Hits £1 Billion in P2P Lending with £2 Billion Goal by End of 2016 (Finance Magnates, Aug 18, 2015) Zopa becomes the first UK P2P lender to reach the £1B in cumulative originations.
Peer-to-Peer Lenders Widen Access For Investors (FT, Aug.17, 2015) Similar Lending Club’s LCOI release last week, Rate Setter is now partnering with FNZ Group, integrating their loans for purchase into FNX-powered systems used by HBSC, Zurich, UBS, and other financial advisors.
How Marketplace Lenders Will Save Financial Services (American Banker, Aug 19, 2015) Solid piece by SoFi CEO Mike Cagney on existing and proposed changes to the regulatory environment.
Investing: The Index Factor (FT, Aug 16, 2015) Deep dive on the roll that indices play in today’s financial environment. Part of larger series on the rise of the index, available here.