France

New funding round for Pretdunion

wiseclerk

French p2p lending service Prêt d’Union raised 3.3 million EUR (approx. 4.2 million US$) in a new funding round from new investors (including Weber Investment, the holding of the two founders of la Financière de l’Echiquier and AG2R La Mondiale) and from its previous shareholders. The company has raised a total of 8.1 million EUR since its inception in October 2009. Along with PRÊT D’UNION’s founders, employees and private investors, the company shareholders are CREDIT MUTUEL ARKEA (34.9%), KIMA VENTURES (5.2%), Xavier Niel and Jeremy Berrebi’s fund (4,2%), Weber Investments (6.4%) and AG2R La Mondiale (2.9%).

“The launch phase was successful. With more than 2.5 million EUR of loans granted in less than six months, we are currently at a rate of over 1 million EUR of credit granted per month, which amounts to a monthly growth of 40%. This new round of financing, … , is an important milestone for PRÊT D’UNION. It will enable us to accelerate our business development through new recruitments, improve our customer service and reach for new customers,” explained Charles EGLY & Geoffroy GUIGOU, respectively CEO and COO at Prêt d’Union.

Pretdunion Gains Banking License And Raises Funding

wiseclerk

It is a successful autumn for French p2p lending service Prêt d’Union. After two years of work, Prêt d’Union was granted a banking license by the French authority. Prêt d’Union also raised a second financing round for 3.8 million Euro (approx. 5.2 million US$) from Crédit Mutuel Arkea and Kimaventures and others. The total funding raised is now 4.8 million Euro.

“The funds raised are for marketing, software development and operating costs. Note that we have dedicated 2.2 million Euro for the approval of the Bank of France to be recognized as an institution credit, such as Cetelem or Sofinco, “said Charles Egly, CEO of Prêt d’Union (statement originally in French, translated).

See a video interview with founder Charles Egly on Frenchweb.

Offering p2p loans for 36, 48 and 60 month loan terms the company aims to reach a 0.1% market share of  the consumer credit market in France.

Update: Lending on Prêt d’Union is restricted to lenders that have ‘accredited investor’ status (this excludes the majority of population).

Friendsclear Temporarily Halts Operations Due To Regulation Issues

wiseclerk 1 Comment

Regulation is an often met obstacle to p2p lending. This time Friendsclear in France is affected and has announced a temporary stop to new loan funding. The Banque de France has requested changes in the operating procedures that Friendsclear and its banking partner Crédit Agricole use.

Friendsclear expects the suspension of funding of new loans to last at least one month. Servicing of loans already funded in the past is unaffected.

Kimaventures Invests in Pretdunion

wiseclerk

Kimaventures has announced investing in Pret d’union, a p2p lending company in France, which according to it’s website, aims to launch in 2011. Unconfirmed sources state that the funding round raised 500,000 Euro – no information which investors participated apart from Kivaventures is available.

CEO Charles Egly is a former banker at BNP Paribas. While the business model was drafted in September 2008, the company was founded in October 2009 and received regulatory approval in December 2009.

Earlier this year French p2p lending service Friendsclear raised 522,000 Euro from several investors including Arkeon Finance.

EDIT: Additional information provided by CEO Charles Egly:
– as of today, Prêt d’Union raised ca. 1 M€ from Business Angels and Kima Ventures.
– in december 2009 Prêt d’union filed a propectus to get a credit institution licence. Prêt d’Union has not yet received the licence and is still in discussion with the Bank of France.

P2P Lending Sites in Europe

wiseclerk 3 Comments

Visualizations are great to show data that would otherwise just be a long list. I decided to create a map of the p2p lending landscape in Europe. It shows active and discontinued p2p lending services in Europe (including p2p microfinance). Not listed are sites that are in pre-launch stage. All of these marketplaces have been featured earlier in the P2P-Banking.com blog. If you want more information about any of them just enter the name in the search box on the top right of this blog.

Notice to other websites: You are free to copy and use this map, provided you agree not to alter or resize the image and you will set a link to this article.

Notice to p2p lending sites: If you want to be included in a future version of this map, contact me to learn how.

P2P Lending for Small Businesses Reaches France

eKwiti 1 Comment

Finally! We all long waited for a genuine P2P lending service in France.

FriendsClear launched on February the first a platform that enables small businesses to advertise their projects and ask for a loan up to 15,000 Euro.

Lenders can then apply for the loan for an amount between 1,000 and 3,000 Euro. If a project is validated, once it receives enough loans propositions.

The rates are fixed to 5% for the lender and 6.25% for the borrower. The spread finances the platform and their Bank partner: Crédit Agricole.

To ensure the seriousness of the projects, it costs 15 Euro to advertise a project. Most of the project information is only available to registered lenders.

To launch this service, FriendsClear organized a project contest. After the public vote (over 10000 votes), a jury will choose the best project between the five finalists. The winner will be rewarded by a prize of 10,000 Euro.

This enables serious business growth for the small startup FriendsClear. In order to support it, they recently raised new funds and it seems that they are looking for new co-workers on this project – but I couln’t find precise information on their recruitment needs.

This is very encouraging sign for finance 2.0 in France, and we believe that more will follow soon, from other actors but also from FriendsClear, which have many projects for the future (P2P for individuals, open a branch in another European country).

An interview of Friendsclear founder Jean-Christophe Capelli [in French]