Unison offers a unique solution to help homebuyers purchase their home; company provides up to half of the down payment to purchase a home and stands to benefit if the home value increases; product is available in 13 states with 8 lenders and the company is close to one thousand deals completed with an anticipated three thousand additional deals in 2017; chairman and co-CEO Thomas Sponholtz answers other questions about the platform from Crowdfund Insider. Source
China Rapid Finance has filed for an IPO in the US; it will be the fifth online lender to trade on a public US exchange and the second Chinese online lender to list in the US; Lend Academy provides more details on China Rapid Finance and the IPO in their article; the firm is hoping to raise $100 million from the IPO; it is a peer-to-peer lender matching borrowers with investors and does not lend from its balance sheet; the platform targets underserved consumers and uses thousands of data points from alternative data sources including information on work history, payments, e-commerce, telco, search and social data for its credit underwriting. Source
Edward Jones has announced a multi-year partnership with St. Louis based venture fund SixThirty; SixThirty invests in eight to 10 fintech startups annually with each startup receiving an investment of up to $100,000 along with support from a business development program that includes mentoring and networking; Edward Jones will be involved in numerous aspects of the venture fund's investing and Frank LaQuinta, a general partner with Edward Jones, will join SixThirty's investment committee. Source
Online franchise business lender ApplePie Capital has announced the acquisition of Funding Solutions, LLC and the appointment of Ronald Feldman as chief development officer; Funding Solutions is a six-person franchise loan consulting firm based in Michigan and will help business and product development for the firm; supporting ApplePie Capital's brand portfolio and product strategy, Ronald Feldman will also bring significant franchise market experience from roles at FranData, Franchise America Finance and The Siegel Financial Group. Source
Goldman Sachs reported its first quarter earnings on April 18 with few details about its new online lending platform, Marcus; the only mention of the new platform was in the analyst Q&A; the firm said the new platform is evolving slowly and is operating according to plans; the firm reported revenue of $8.03 billion, an increase of 26.7% from the first quarter of 2016; net earnings were $2.26 billion and earnings per share were $5.15; disappointing trading revenue was a point of emphasis for the quarter; investors are interested in more details about Marcus, which has a competitive cost advantage and is reporting potential return on assets of three times the return on assets of the firm as a whole at 3%; as Goldman Sachs progresses further with its retail business expansion, investors will be watching the retail business contribution overall which could help to cover some of its recent shortcomings and give it an edge over its competitors. Source
SoFi has developed a new marketplace lending fund primarily targeting family offices; a regulatory filing shows the fund as SoFi Prime Income Fund with 33 investors each investing a minimum of $500,000; total fund investment is $105 million; the Fund will focus on investing in SoFi's unsecured student and personal loans. Source
Renaud Laplanche launched his new online lending firm at the beginning of April; Upgrade raised $60 million for its launch and is reportedly valued at $168 million; the company will compete directly with many unsecured consumer lenders offering loans from $2,000 to $50,000; a key part of the offering will be a mobile app to help borrowers manage their finances which has yet to be released. Source
Survey provides insights on investors preferences for investing in real estate and demand for technology; the report shows only 2% of participants are very familiar with real estate crowdfunding providing opportunity for greater awareness of real estate investment platforms; additional highlights include statistics on investment performance perception, interest in real estate technology and thoughts on house flipping investments. Source
eOriginal has appointed Brian Madocks as the firm's new CEO; co-founder Stephen Bisbee will become president of the firm working directly with Madocks on eOriginal's digital documentation offerings and the company's growth; Madocks brings 25 years of business technology and application software experience with work in executive roles at Rivitas Inc., Vitalyst Inc. and SunGard Higher Education. Source
Ocwen Financial is currently managing enforcement orders from 22 state regulators regarding abuse of mortgage servicing; factors involved with the proceedings include illegal foreclosures, deceptive fees and mishandled customer home loan payments; shares of the publicly traded company have fallen approximately 50%; the enforcement orders prohibit the acquisition of new mortgage servicing rights and the origination of mortgage loans. Source