UK

Two UK Crowdfunding Platforms Currently Raising Money From The Crowd at Seedrs – Crowdlords & Trillion Fund

wiseclerk

At the moment there is not only one but two open pitches from UK crowdfunding/fintech startups  raising money in exchange for equity at Seedrs.
I invested small amounts in both of them and will become a shareholder when the pitches successfully close.

Crowdlords

Crowdlords is a pre-launch two-sided, residential buy-to let crowdfunding platform that wants to bring together landlords and investors.

Landlords who are fully vetted, would identify the properties and be required to invest a minimum amount themselves – the balance is sourced from Investors. Each property would be held in a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) with the shareholdings in each SPV split between the Landlord and the Investors.

Investors would be able to select from a range of properties and investments. Investors would gain returns from ongoing underlying rental income and a proportionate share of sale proceeds when the property is sold. Investors could invest fairly modest sums with a minimum investment of 1,000 GBP.

Crowdlords is pitching for 90,000 GBP offering 10% equity (810,000 GBP pre-money valuation). The pitch is currntly 83% filled.

Trillion Fund

Trillion Fund is a crowdfunding platform that raises money for environmental and social projects from ordinary people who want better returns.

Trillion focuses on loan based crowdfunding in green energy and social investment, and earns a percentage of funds raised, paid by borrowers, and an annual percentage of funds lent, paid by the lenders.

Using profit as motivation Trillion aims to re-engage consumers with their money and help them make a profit and make a difference. Trillion effectively operates a two sided network, bringing together people with money and those who need it.

Trillion claims that the recent merger with Buzzbnk has made it one of the largest social crowdfunding business in the UK.

The pitch seeks to raise 500,000 GBP in exchange for 7.7% equity (6M GBP pre-money valuation). The pitch just started and is currently 2.7% filled. Continue reading →

International P2P Lending Services – Loan Volumes October 2014

wiseclerk

October was overall a good month for p2p lending services. Especially Zopa did grow and closed a bit of the gap to the 2 other UK p2p marketplaces . Prosper reached a total volume of 2 billion US$ originated since inception. I added one more service.  I do monitor development of p2p lending figures for many markets. Since I already have most of the data on file I can publish statistics on the monthly loan originations for selected p2p lending services.


Table: P2P Lending Volumes in October 2014. Source: own research
Note that volumes have been converted from local currency to Euro for the sake of comparison. Some figures are estimates/approximations.

Notice to p2p lending services not listed:
If you want to be included in this chart in future, please email the following figures on the first working day of a month: total loan volume originated since inception, loan volume originated in previous month, number of loans originated in previous month, average nominal interest rate of loans originated in previous month.

Seedrs Acquires Junction Investments – Will Expand Into US Market

wiseclerk

Seedrs, a UK crowdinvestment platform, has announced that it acquired California based Junction Investments. Seedrs plans to use this acquisition to expand to the United States in early 2015. Junction’s co-founders, Adam Kaufman and Brian Goldsmith, are now Co-Heads of Seedrs America, and they will be leading this expansion.

Seedrs was already open to international investors and startups, but so far the focus was clearly on the UK and Europe.

Seedrs on building a global platform: ‘A founding principle of Seedrs is that investment in startups and growth businesses should be global. We believe in a future where entrepreneurs and investors from all over the world can connect online. Investors should be able to discover and invest in opportunities anywhere, and entrepreneurs should be able to access capital worldwide.

Financial regulation remains largely national or regional, however, and compliance with applicable law has always been a non-negotiable element of Seedrs’s approach to business. Building a global platform is thus a multi-stage process that involves identifying the right approaches and partners in different jurisdictions.

Having opened across Europe at the end of 2013, we began to look at the U.S. market at the beginning of this year. The U.S. has been slower to embrace equity crowdfunding than the UK and Europe have, and full-scale crowdfunding is not yet possible there. But with the opening of online investment to accredited investors at the end of last year (under Title II of the JOBS Act), and the prospect of wider crowdfunding on the horizon (under the yet-to-be-implemented Title III of the JOBS Act, or an amended version thereof), we feel that now is the right time to begin building our U.S. presence.’

My take: This is one of the first international mergers in the equity crowdfunding space. It will be interesting to see if and how other players do on taking internationalisation beyond Europe.

International P2P Lending Services – Loan Volumes September 2014

wiseclerk

September was a very good month for most p2p lending services. The major UK p2p lending services grew strongly with Ratesetter surpassing 30 million GBP originated. I added the new UK service Ablrate which originated the first two loans.  I do monitor development of p2p lending figures for many markets. Since I already have most of the data on file I can publish statistics on the monthly loan originations for selected p2p lending services.


Table: P2P Lending Volumes in September 2014. Source: own research
Note that volumes have been converted from local currency to Euro for the sake of comparison. Some figures are estimates/approximations.

Notice to p2p lending services not listed:
If you want to be included in this chart in future, please email the following figures on the first working day of a month: total loan volume originated since inception, loan volume originated in previous month, number of loans originated in previous month, average nominal interest rate of loans originated in previous month.

International P2P Lending Services – Loan Volumes August 2014

wiseclerk 1 Comment

In August Prosper, Bondora and Thincats showed big growth of newly originated loan volume. For most other services it was a slow month. I added one more new service to the table.  I do monitor development of p2p lending figures for many markets. Since I already have most of the data on file I can publish statistics on the monthly loan originations for selected p2p lending services.

Table: P2P Lending Volumes in August 2014. Source: own research
Note that volumes have been converted from local currency to Euro for the sake of comparison. Some figures are estimates/approximations.

Notice to p2p lending services not listed:
If you want to be included in this chart in future, please email the following figures on the first working day of a month: total loan volume originated since inception, loan volume originated in previous month, number of loans originated in previous month, average nominal interest rate of loans originated in previous month.

Lendit Conference comes to Europe in November

wiseclerk

LendIt Europe will be held in London on November 17th, 2014. LendIt is the major conference for the p2p lending industry. I was not able to attend the event when it took place in the US in the past year, but I will certainly fly to London in November. The San Francisco event last autumn was attended by over 950 people.

LendIt Europe will be held at 155 Bishopsgate, a state of the art new conference venue in the heart of London’s financial district.

Registration is now open (use discount code wiseclerkvip on the payment page and you get a special 15% discount on the ticket price, which I obtained for readers of P2P-Banking.com). Earlybird price will end on Aug. 31st.

LendIt Europe will bring together the leaders and pioneers at the forefront of the p2p and online lending industry in Europe. In addition to the leading lending platforms, LendIt Europe is expected to draw institutional investors, financial analysts, private wealth managers, family offices, individual investors, and media representatives from across the globe. Agenda, speakers, and sponsors will be announced in the coming weeks.

“Europe is the birthplace of p2p lending and in many ways, it leads the world,” said Peter Renton, Co-Founder of LendIt and Founder of Lend Academy. “For this reason, we decided to create a European version of our popular LendIt Conference to bring the European leaders in our industry together so we can learn from each other.”

The one-day conference will feature keynotes from the CEOs of the leading UK platforms, as well as interactive panel sessions with leaders from across Europe. The Exhibit Hall will feature both new and established platforms as well as service providers, allowing attendees to get a complete snapshot of the industry. There will also be a pre-conference cocktail party held the night before at the Andaz Hotel on Liverpool Street.