Bpifrance has invested in a co-financing fund managed by the Lendix platform; the investment from Bpifrance brings the fund's investments to EUR90 million; the fund invests in loans for French and European companies borrowing on the Lendix platform. Source
Creditas, a provider of online secured loans in Brazil, has closed a $19 million funding round which included investment from World Bank member, International Finance Corporation (IFC), Naspers Fintech, Redpoint Eventures, Kaszek Ventures, Quona Capital and QED Investors; the financing marks the first investment in fintech from IFC, a global leader in emerging market private sector investments; the firm plans to utilize the new capital for new distribution channels, technology innovation, platform growth and market positioning; additionally the firm also plans to reduce its minimum interest rate from 2.15% to 1.99% per month, which is compared to the average consumer lending rate in Brazil of 7.20%. Source
Brett King interviewed Antony Jenkins for a LendIt USA 2017 keynote presentation titled, "The End of the Beginning: Accelerating Transformation in Financial Services"; King also talked with a number of conference participants in a Breaking Banks podcast titled, "Innovations in Lending at LendIt 2017"; the podcast provides insight from Brock Blake of Lendio, Christoph Rieche of iwoca, Ohad Samet from TrueAccord, Peter Renton from LendIt, John Owens and Emmanuel Daniel of The Asian Banker. Source
Small business marketplace lender Breakout Capital has secured a new revolving credit facility from Drift Capital Partners, LLC; the deal provides $25 million in revolving credit for Breakout Capital with further credit available as the company grows; according to Carl Fairbank, founder and CEO of Breakout Capital, "Drift's facility will further bolster our growth trajectory and enable us to provide tens of millions of dollars or more of additional working capital to small businesses across the country."; Breakout Capital has been an active advocate in the marketplace lending industry; it is a founding member of the Coalition for Responsible Business Finance and is also part of the PLUM Initiative. Source
PeerStreet is a platform founded by Brew Johnson? and Brett Crosby; initially launched to take advantage of inefficiencies in the real estate market, the platform has grown to service a wide range of accredited investors; the platform has originated over $200 million in real estate loans; it attributes its success to the platform's focus on short-term, first position lien loans, and a robust legal and compliance team; Brew Johnson will be speaking at LendIt USA 2017 on a panel discussing "Residential & Commercial Real Estate: What's next for real estate crowdfunding?" Source
Brickell Capital Finance will now offer its healthcare clients Liquid FSI Convert2Pay services through its sales representatives; Liquid FSI Convert2Pay allows healthcare professionals to upload healthcare claims and receive payouts; the firm has a range of solutions for healthcare claim payouts and also offers healthcare industry lending services. Source
Development finance P2P lender Bricks Finance has received Financial Conduct Authority authorization; firm is not planning to launch an innovative finance individual savings account; will instead focus on expanding partnerships with brokers; also announced a new Bricks Bond product for wealth managers and their clients; firm has been lending since May 2015 with loans of more than £5 million ($6.22 million). Source
British Business Bank (BBB) is a government-owned entity designed to support small businesses in the UK through a fund with 1 billion British pounds ($1.27 billion); it currently has 85 million British pounds ($108 million) invested in the P2P lending industry; the Financial Conduct Authority's release of an update on the crowdfunding market last week noting a number of factors for further investigation has caused taxpayers to question the large allocation to the P2P lending sector; specifically John O'Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, has said, "This is extremely concerning and taxpayers will want to know how this can be good use of their money."; according to a Freedom of Information request reported on by Business Insider, the allocations from BBB include 60 million British pounds ($76 million) invested with Funding Circle, 15 million British pounds ($19 million) invested with MarketInvoice and 10 million British pounds ($13 million) invested with RateSetter. Source
Media site Bridging & Commercial filed a freedom of information request into the British Business Bank's investments in P2P platforms; since 2014 the British Business Bank has invested 135 million British pounds ($168 million); commitments are made via the Business Finance Partnership Tranche (BFP) and the Investment Programme (IP); the details are outlined in the above chart. Source
Brock Blake from Lendio discusses his insights from LendIt USA 2017; Blake was a moderator for the panel, "How Banks are Coming Back to SME Lending"; from his perspective he believes banks are proactively innovating to develop better online lending solutions for their business customers; this was evident in comments from panelists at JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America who provided examples on how the banks are innovating after a slower adoption phase that included a competitive market analysis. Source