YieldStreet has reached $100 million in lending in less than eight quarters; the firm markets returns of 8% to 20% with a peer-to-peer lending model that offers secured loans; investment minimums begin at $5,000 and the platform has a range of investors including accredited, high net worth, family offices, registered investment advisors and institutional investors. 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
MoneyLion's senior vice president of marketing and product Tim Hong talks about the firm's marketing efforts and customer focus; says the firm was founded on advancements in machine learning and artificial intelligence that help it to broaden credit access for customers; also reports that its balance sheet lending helps it to better align with customers; the firm provides a range of credit services for its customers that goes beyond loans; its offerings include credit monitoring services and programs that educate customers while also building a relationship with them that can facilitate credit issuance in the future. 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
Robo adviser Wealthfront has announced in a blog post that it will expand its product offering to include loans; the firm is one of the premier robo advisers in the US; through a partnership with RBC Capital Markets, Wealthfront has uniquely designed a lending product for its current clients with at least $100,000; loans can be issued for approximately 30% of a client's account value. Source
Payments company Venmo has grown significantly from its founding by Iqram Magdon-Ismail and Andrew Kortina; it was acquired for $26 million by payment processor Braintree and is now owned by PayPal after an $800 million acquisition in 2013; through acquisitions the firm's payment processes have evolved; in 2016 the firm transacted $18 billion; now as a PayPal company it has been plugged into PayPal's compliance infrastructure for tracking fraudulent payments and settlements; as a PayPal company it has also been able to offer new services and its executive team has been integrated with PayPal helping the company to develop new market positioning. Source
Lend Academy talks with Prosper's CEO David Kimball in their podcast; David Kimball was previously CFO and became CEO in December; he talks about some of the company's challenges in 2016; provides details on the platform's investors, origination volumes and financing controls; he also discusses the firm's $5 billion investment deal and how it is affecting the business. 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
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
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
