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[nonattender]

http://blog.lendingclub.com/2010/04/14/we-received-a-24500000-investment-this-morning/

Our friends at Foundation Capital invested quite a bit of money in our company this morning, and were joined by existing investors Morgenthaler Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners and Canaan Partners.

Besides bringing our team the pleasant feeling of waking up with an extra $24.5M in our bank account, the additional resources will be helpful in many ways. This investment will help us complete new projects faster, including new loan products for borrowers, new investment tools for investors, a series of improvements to our website (including performance improvements, thank you for your patience) and other enhancements that will continue to make your Lending Club experience increasingly more rewarding. The funds will also help us expand our reach to a larger pool of customers and continue growing our community.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our shareholders for their enthusiastic support, and thank you our members who have grown the Lending Club community at an incredibly fast pace over the last 12 months, increasing our monthly loan volume from $2.3M in February 2009 to $8.6M in March 2010 to capture 79% of the US peer lending market last month.

So the day started quite well here. How’s your day going? Leave us a comment.

Best, Renaud

Full Press Release at:

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lending-club-announces-245-million-in-series-c-funding-90819024.html

TC picked it up at:  http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/14/lending-club/

Nominate for Lobby.

-t

[112233]

2nd

[justlendnlearn]

3rd

[Xenon481]

Good for them. They have been doing a great job and really seem to be in touch with all parts of their community.

I personally, however, still would never participate in the lender/investor side of their offerings as I do not want to do what amounts to the equivalent of giving them a venture capital loan with a downside if the borrower doesn't pay and no upside if the company does well.

[kenL]

 Good job Renaud! way too one up Prosper!

[nonattender]

Good job Renaud! way too one up Prosper!

A curious game - the only way to win is not to play.
(But I thought the object was to one up the banks.)

-t

[Xenon481]

Good job Renaud! way too one up Prosper!

A curious game - the only way to win is not to play.
(But I thought the object was to one up the banks.)

-t

A company that does not strive to do better than its direct competition is a company that fails.

[kenL]

Good job Renaud! way too one up Prosper!

A curious game - the only way to win is not to play.
(But I thought the object was to one up the banks.)

-t

What I was referring to was the much anticipated Prosper announcement of funding. LC announced their's one day ahead of Prosper's expected announcement and the amount is much greater than what Prosper told us to expect. I think that's a proper in your face one up. Or maybe I should have said "way to steal prosper's thunder Renaud!". Of course I realize it may all be coincidence, but generally these things are not coincidence. Like LC reopening when Prosper closed, was that another coincidence?

[nonattender]

I suppose it is all, as usual, in how one defines their terms...  I thought LC = "P2P Disintermediation"
If LC sees Prosper as its competitor, rather than its compatriot, they should go hire an optometrist.
Or perhaps I need a stronger prescription myself, because I thought they were "better" than this...

I understand differentiation based on past performance - but, at this point, aren't we beyond that?
LC making a point of biting at Prosper is like one mosquito biting another before biting the elephant.

Gamesmanship is amusing, at times, but this kinda just... bites.  And is a recurring theme with LC...
As there's no such thing as coincidence, who knows what tomorrow will bring?  I suppose we'll see.

-t

[Urbi_et_Orbi]

Both Prosper and LendingClub list each other as primary competitors in their respective SEC filings.

[kenL]

LC making a point of biting at Prosper is like one mosquito biting another before biting the elephant.

I think of it more like two people drowning in the same pool...each pushing each other down to get their own head up.

BTW NA, what do you mean by "disintermediation"? I'm not edgumacated[sic] enough to know what that means.

[nonattender]

LC making a point of biting at Prosper is like one mosquito biting another before biting the elephant.

I think of it more like two people drowning in the same pool...each pushing each other down to get their own head up.

If they'd stop fighting and float, they might find that a rising tide lifts both boats.  Symbiosis is no joke.

This is, you know, a totally wild-assed tangent, but it appeared on this forum in another thread, earlier:

Ah yes, is it time for another civil war yet?

We took our kids to Gettysburg the other weekend; the new visitor's center is *impressive*. Explained to them that yes, they did live in a slave state (MD) and explained the whole occupation. And the MD state song.

But what was interesting was the cyclorama. They really did a good job with this; it went from a pretty crappy thing to a really impressive display. As the kids looked around and took it in they asked:

"Who won?"

Alex, from Mississippi (who had family that fought and died at Vicksburg) and myself (NJ boy who had family that fought and died at Gettysburg) both looked at each other, then the kids and said:

"No one."

Funny how having to try to explain complex things in simple terms to kids often leads to such deep truths.

BTW NA, what do you mean by "disintermediation"? I'm not edgumacated[sic] enough to know what that means.

Distributed transaction system which allows for both direct & preferentially-directed allocations of capital.

Naturally, you need some kind of intermediary/substrate to build that on, and, maybe one to do that, one
to be a little more traditional/centralized/gradual in its approach, in order to attract institutional investors.
You know, to warm the big money to the idea.  But, hey, what do I know?  Knock yourselves out - or not.

Symbiosis, my man... Symbiosis.

-t

[ducks]

Why would anyone provide more funding to Prosper when LendingClub has $24.5M in new funding and 79% of the US peer lending market?

[ira01]

Why would anyone provide more funding to Prosper when LendingClub has $24.5M in new funding and 79% of the US peer lending market?

And LC is growing originations while Prosper is stagnant, and Prosper has a boatload of bad reputation attached?  Beats me.  Probably the inability to admit a mistake, and the tendency to throw good money after bad.

[112233]

LC makes it look so easy. There goes any possible suggestion that lack of funding is an issue with the economy.