Countries

Interview with Brian Dally, CEO and Co-Founder of Groundfloor

wiseclerk

What is Groundfloor about?

GROUNDFLOOR is taking private real estate lending public. We’re paving the way to open a new $70 billion lending market to all – and that’s in single family home renovation and construction lending alone. You can read more about how we’re doing that here.

More broadly, we like to think of the company as an exposition on a theory of capital markets. We believe the broadest base of capital wins—because it’s faster, cheaper, more flexible and more efficient.

What are the three main advantages for investors?

  1. GROUNDFLOOR makes real estate investing more accessible than ever before. We create new investment opportunities for non-accredited investors; a group of Americans that have never had access to these types of investments before.
  2. Our typical loan term is dramatically shorter than what you see with P2P lending products like Lending Club. Our average term is 6 or 12 months, compared to 3-5 years for typical deals elsewhere.
  3. We offer dramatically higher returns than traditional investments. During our one-year pilot in Georgia, the average annualized yield for our investors was over 12 percent. For context, that means that GROUNDFLOOR outperformed the compound average annual return of Charles Schwab’s mutual funds between 1970 and 2014.

What are the three main advantages for borrowers?

  1. It’s fast and simple to get funded on GROUNDFLOOR. You can submit a project by checking your rate in less than 5 minutes. Projects have 30 days to fund, but most projects fund much sooner once they are posted. The closing process is quick and painless using the same closing attorneys you already use.
  2. GROUNDFLOOR is a reliable source of capital. We fund construction, renovation and other loan types that are typically difficult to bank finance, and we offer low fixed interest rates starting at 6% (not including fees).
  3. We offer terms that fit borrower needs. Most of our loans run from 6 to 12 months. Borrowers can repay their loan at any time to reduce borrowing costs, and personal guarantee and cross-collateralization is not required in most circumstances.

Brian DallyWhat ROI can investors expect?

GROUNDFLOOR backs independent builders with secured loans that pay 5-26% annually. During our one-year pilot in Georgia, the average annualized yield for our investors was over 12 percent.

What is the background of Groundfloor? Who are your seed investors?

GROUNDFLOOR was founded in February 2013 and is based in Atlanta. We have raised $2.5 million in seed funding from angel investors including Michael D. Olander Jr, Bruce Boehm, Tibor Nagygyorgy, Mark Easley Sr. and Inception Micro-Angel Fund.

Brian Dally is co-founder and CEO. He has spent his career building disruptive technology startups during stints in Silicon Valley, Boston, London and the North Carolina Triangle region. Previously, he led the launch of Republic Wireless to take on the big four cellphone carriers to international acclaim.

Nick Bhargava is co-founder and EVP of regulatory affairs. An expert in securities law, Nick was heavily involved in the JOBS Act as an early pioneer who advanced the concept of equity crowdfunding. Nick and Brian met through Groundwork Labs in the Triangle-area startup hub the American Underground. His years in finance have included work for the Financial Services Roundtable, SEC, FINRA, TD Waterhouse and RBC Financial Group. Continue reading →

Prestamos Prima Set to Launch P2P Lending Service Viventor in Spain

wiseclerk

Viventor logoBarcelona based company Prestamos Prima launched Viventor, a p2p lending marketplace for real estate loans.

Viventor will be focused on serving the investor side of money market. “The financing model of high street banks is outdated, and they are too slow to change the course as fast as the market demands. Recent years have shown that alternative finance solutions are reshaping the industry, and a major change on stage is inevitable,” states Andris Rozenbahs, CEO of the Prestamos Prima Group.

Vivntor will serve loans for residential and commercial property. All borrowers will be businesses, with loan terms one year and longer. The average interest rate investors will earn is expected to be around 6 to 7.5%. Prestamos Prima told P2P-Banking.com that there will be a secondary market.

The new platform, Viventor, will launch in fall 2015. Initially, it will be open for EU investors only, and provide the opportunity to invest in loans secured by Spanish mortgages. Real estate crowdfunding opportunities, investment insurance and inclusion of the borrower side are all on the roadmap. The Group CEO stresses: “We are set to make tremendous efforts to ensure security and credibility. Our goal is to provide quality investment opportunities, no junks. All the loans will be secured by mortgages carefully evaluated, and Viventor will keep its stake in all the loans listed.” Continue reading →

Crosslend Review – My First Steps

wiseclerk

As reported earlier today, new p2p marketplace Crosslend (Spanish site) (German site) offers unsecured p2p loans to consumers. There was a soft launch phase last week, which enabled me to register early and gain first insights into the marketplace interface. After registration I awaited verification of the newly opened lender account at biw Bank and then deposited money there (if you are outside the Eurozone, you may consider using Transferwise or Currencyfair instead of doing a direct transfer).

In the dashboard I selected ‘Browse Notes‘ which led me to an overview of all available note. Since my test was conducted during soft launch, there was only one available not.

Crosslend Filter
Screenshot Browse Notes (click for larger view): at the bottom there is the listed loan (risk grade B) for 6,000 EUR vehicle financing at 8.59% interest

Crosslend Filters

Initially only the general filters (loan term, risk classes) for selecting loans are displayed. By clicking on ‘show all filters’ I expanded further loan selection filters: Borrower filters are DTI, monthly net income, home owner, country and supporting documents (proof of income, proof of residence and utility/phone bills). Loan filters include loan amount, funding percentage and loan purpose. It is possible to save filters to reapply them again in future. Continue reading →

Crosslend Launches New P2P Lending Marketplace

wiseclerk

Today, new p2p lending marketplace Crosslend launched offering unsecured loans to consumers. Opening to borrowers and investors in Germany and Spain as well as investors in the UK, Crosslend aims for further European expansion and creating a unified European marketplace.

The Berlin headquartered startup was founded by Oliver Schimek and Daniel Schlotter (both had previous FinTech experience at Kreditech) and Marie Louise Seelig (formerly Skrill). Crosslend already raised a funding round prelaunch from Lakestar, Atlantic Internet and others.

crosslend-markets
Markets targeted by Crosslend

When a loan is granted it is purchased and acquired by Luxembourg based Crosslend Securities SA and securitized by a series of ‘notes’. Notes are debt securities which can be purchased by investors. A series of notes is made up of a number of notes, each with a denomination of 25 EUR. The total nominal value of a series of notes is equivalent to the amount of the loan. When a borrower makes their loan repayments, CrossLend Securities SA makes the corresponding payments of interest and principal pro rata to the holders of the notes.
This will enable Crosslend to offer a secondary market, which is due to be launched in a few months.

Crosslend Notes

Borrowers can apply for loans from 1,500 to 30,000 Euro for loan terms from 6 to 60. Crosslend will grade loans in risk classes A to G, HR. Interest rates (APRs range from about 3.5% to about 17%) and borrower fees are dependent on the assigned risk classes. Crosslend checks submitted proofs of income for all loan applications.

To invest lenders first open an account with biw Bank, the partner bank of Crosslend, this involves a short video verification process of the investor’s identity (webcam required). Video verification is an innovative account opening process which several German online banks started to use to replace the identification via postal communication.
Investors then deposit money into their account (250 Euro minimum). Then investors can choose which loans they want to invest into (25 EUR minimum bid per loan). Crosslend charges investors a 1% fee at origination.

UK investors should consider using Transferwise or Currencyfair to exchange money into Euro to avoid possible bank fees and a bad exchange rate applied by the bank. Continue reading →

Slovak P2P Lending Marketplace Zlty Melon is Preparing for Next Growth Phase by Capital Increase

wiseclerk

Zlty Melon logoŽltý melón, the first p2p2 lending service in Slovakia, has successfully completed a Series A investment round and raised its capital to strengthen further development and implementation of strategic plans.

According to information P2P-Banking.com obtained from the Žltý melón management, the first tranche was little below 1M EUR, with the agreement for additional capital in range of 2M EUR after several milestones will be achieved.

Žltý melón acquired investments from EU-investment fund program JEREMIE, which is managed by Limerock Fund Manager, FTK Invest, an investment company, and Mr. Hendrik Bremer, a long-time business partner of financial services in Central and Eastern Europe at PwC and Roland Berger, strategy consulting companies. Mr. Bremer has also joined the company’s management and thus supports its existing team.

Read an earlier guest post by CEO Roman Feranec about the P2P lending market in Slovakia.
The company plans to expand further into the Czech Republic and other countries in Central and Eastern Europe.

“After being on the Slovak market for two and a half years, we launched our Series A Investment Round in order to raise capital to accelerate growth and further implementation of our strategic plans, particularly in the areas of product portfolio, services for our clients and territorial expansion. We do see the investment as a confirmation of trust in the innovative business model and our company; it also shows that ​​peer-to-peer lending is perceived positively not only globally, but also in Slovakia. We really appreciate that Mr. Bremer has joined our team. His extensive experience in the development of financial services throughout our region will greatly assist in our future development,” says Roman Feranec, CEO of Žltý melón. Continue reading →

Funding Circle Partners With H&R Block

wiseclerk

Funding Circle LogoThe small businesses who already use H&R Block for bookkeeping, payroll, taxes and other accounting services now have access to a new online service: business loans up to 500,000 US$, thanks to a new referral partnership with Funding Circle, a p2p lending marketplace for small business loans.

Through the partnership, Funding Circle loans are the preferred solution for H&R Block Small Business customers seeking financing to grow.

The new agreement bolsters Funding Circle’s diverse strategic partner ecosystem, which has experienced a 313% growth in monthly originations since January 2015. Other key partners integrated onto the platform recently include Intuit, Tri-Net, LendingTree, Credit Karma, Creditera and the National Small Business Association.

“Funding Circle offers strategic partners across multiple verticals the opportunity to build value-added services by leveraging our core technology, strong underwriting and customer-first approach to deliver unique financing solutions for their small business customers,” said Funding Circle co-founder and US managing director Sam Hodges. “Building a rich and diverse partner ecosystem is a core part of our growth strategy, and we are proud to welcome strong brands like H&R Block onto our platform who share our values and mission to help small businesses grow and prosper.”

“The mission of our two organizations are very similar,” said Jeremy Smith, director of Block Small Business. “We both provide services to small businesses that enable successful, sustainable growth. Given that we do the accounting for service businesses with less than $20MM in revenue, our clients have found it difficult to get loans from traditional banks. Well, Funding Circle specializes in lending to these types of businesses; so now our clients have a go-to source for capital to grow their businesses.” Continue reading →