Though not p2p lending, I found the concept of British Wonga (not yet launched) remarkable. With no debt and a decent credit record, british consumers can apply for a loan of up to 200 pounds (at about 14 percent interest) and receive the deposit less than 20 minutes after application. Subsequent loan applications can be for higher sums.
Wonga does not draw the money from a bank, an undisclosed partner underwrites the risk.
Paper on p2p lending comparing Prosper and Zopa
Brad Slavin has written a 15 page research paper: "Peer-to-Peer Lending – An Industry Insight". It contains a good summary on p2p lending aspects as well as a comparision between Zopa.com and Prosper.com. The figures given are not up to date, I assume the paper was written last year.
Toogly to apply idea of peer to peer lending to company funding
As P2P-Kredite.com writes, German Toogly plans to apply the idea of p2p lending to funding startups and companies. Anybody can draft a loan request between 1000 and 100000 Euro describing the business objective. Private lenders can bid between 50 and 100000 Euro. Interest rate and term are set by the borrower.
Currently Toogly only has the idea and a domain as placeholder. The application is currently developed and the CEO Carsten Hansen says he hopes to launch in the end of the 3rd quarter.
Hansen even wants to raise the funding Toogly needs via this way rather then using Venture Capital or other means of financing.
The concept differs from site like GoBignetwork, because Toogly will handle all repayments of the loan from the borrower. It is therefor involved in processing just like other p2p lending services.
Ppdai – p2p lending reaches China
Soon p2p lending via the internet will be available in the country with the largest population: China. Shanghai based startup Ppdai.com which is currently in its test period and open by invitation only, plans to launch in July. Two of the founders are former Microsoft employees.
Gu Shaofeng (Jack Gu), CTO of ppdai, told P2P-Banking.com: "Ppdai.com will be targeted at the small P2P loan in China (the root of P2P concept). The unique part is it emphasize the important of 'Friends', the concept of the Social Networking. Ppdai.com encourge users to lend to Friends, or friends'friend to reduce the risks."
As far as I can see the concept is a copy of the Prosper model (possibly without the groups). The minimum bid is only 50 Chinese Yuan – less then 7 US$.
According to the website, laws and regulation in China are not defining terms for p2p lending, but indirectly it can be assumed that p2p lending is not prohibited provided interest rates are not exceeding 4 times the interest rates of bank loans.
While browsing the site I noticed that the design is closely resembling designs of Smava, Prosper and in one occassion Lendingclub.
Smava original logo and homepage:
Ppdai imitation:
Prosper original bidding icons:
Ppdai copycat (text translated):
Lendingclub grows fast, passes $100000 in loans
P2P lending service Lendingclub, which launched last month has passed 100000 US$ in closed loans. The growth rate, compared to other peer to peer startups launched this year in other markets (see previous articles) is very high. More than $210000 in loans will close in the next 12 days. (Source: Techcrunch)
Prosper raises $20 million venture capital
Prosper.com has raised another 20 million US$ in funding from DAG Ventures, Meritech Capital Partners. Previous investors also participated in this round. (Source: VentureBeat)
It is speculated that Prosper might use the money to further develop its p2p lending model in order to enhance competitiveness with Zopa and others in the US.