Online lender Elevate has released customer progression milestones showing improved credit scores and rate eligibility; 55,000 customers on the platform have improved their credit scores and 20,000 customers can now receive a lower borrowing rate; Elevate's unique RISE credit product facilitates credit scoring improvement by educating customers on their personal financial credit and offering subsequent loans at reduced rates of up to 50% for qualified borrowers. Source
Elevate Credit has appointed Tony Leopold as its new general manager for the firm's Rise product; Leopold brings over 20 years of experience in strategy, business development, finance and operations from roles at United Rentals and Bain and Company; Rise is Elevate's flagship product offering unsecured consumer loans of $500 to $5,000. Source
Elevate Credit reported its second quarter earnings results on Monday, July 31; revenue for the quarter was $150.5 million, increasing 18.7% from the comparable quarter; earnings per share were $0.08, increasing from a loss of -$0.59 in the second quarter of 2016; business highlights noted in the earnings release included over $200 million in total principal outstanding with more than 120,000 open accounts, the launch of Elevate Labs and the introduction of the RISE line of credit product in Kansas. Source
Online lender Elevate Credit (ELVT) began trading shares of company stock on Thursday; the firm's CEO Ken Rees talked with CNBC about subprime lending and the IPO; shares opened for the day at $6.50 with a 19% increase to close at $7.76 giving it a market cap of $270 million; the offering was below expectations which had the stock estimated at $12 to $14; the firm offers loans to subprime borrowers with an underwriting system that considers over 10,000 data points. Source
Company is offering 7.7 million shares at $12 - $14 per share and may raise up to $124 million; Elevate will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange with ticker ELVT; UBS is leading the IPO with participation from Credit Suisse and Jefferies; according to Elevate CEO Ken Rees: "When we began our IPO process over a year ago, we told you we would grow revenue and profits throughout 2016, while continuing to provide the most responsible credit products in our space. In fact, we improved the company in almost every way." Source
Sub-prime lender Elevate, while still awaiting the right time to go public, has expanded their product line by offering customers a line of credit for up to $3,500 called Elastic; Republic Bank is the issuer of the credit line and according to Elevate's CEO, Ken Rees, there are other institutions showing interest; Rees explains further, "Banks are terrible at lending outside of their branch footprint and they are not good at customer acquisition. We provide products and a set of underwriting tools that fits for non-prime customers." Source
Elevate's Center for the New Middle Class has released a study showing subprime consumers are limited in their ability to utilize credit balances or borrow from their social networks; the Center's study reports 70% of nonprime Americans couldn't cover an urgent expense of $500 or more with their savings and 64% wouldn't be able to borrow from friends and family; the Center's study amplifies the need for solutions targeting nonprime borrowers; Elevate's Center for the New Middle Class is currently undergoing research efforts to support nonprime credit access and personal financial management efficiencies. Source
OnDeck is one of the market's leading small business online lenders and they have taken an active role in industry self-regulation specifically around improved transparency for business borrowers; in their featured blog post they discuss the market's landscape and their lending technology partnership integration efforts; they also provide details on their involvement in developing industry best practices through development of the Association for Enterprise Opportunity and the Innovation Lending Platform Association; this involvement has resulted in the creation of the SMART Box which they also detail in their blog post. Sponsored Blog Post
Lending data solutions provider Envestnet|Yodlee has released Risk Insight Suite; Risk Insight Suite builds on the firm's data aggregation and analytics capabilities, providing lenders with a broader solution for obtaining data and evaluating a more comprehensive set of consumer and business data for loan underwriting; the Risk Insight Suite can potentially provide broader access to credit by including expanded profile information from sources such as a borrower's financial institution with data on assets, income and expenses. Source
The Marketplace Lending Association has added eOriginal as its newest member; eOriginal was founded in 1996 and has been actively involved in the integration of electronic documentation throughout the financial services industry; it currently provides solutions for marketplace lenders and its expertise will significantly support the goals of the Marketplace Lending Association. Source