Marketplace lenders dominated the FinTech venture capital rounds last week. Money has been pouring into the space as investors hunt desperately for returns.
American companies continued their resurgence in the Top 5, with three companies based in New York, California, and Georgia garnering money.
- LiftForward, Inc., $250 Million – LiftForward operates a marketplace loan platform which provides loans to small businesses and high-yield debt products to investors. Based in New York, LiftForward’s goal is to “bring back the ability for small businesses to get loans to fuel their growth” after the 2008 economic recession. LiftForward raised its $250 million in capital through debt financing.
- Kabbage, $120 Million – Kabbage is a leader in the marketplace lending space, and has a particular focus on small businesses. In 2014 the company, based in Atlanta, Georgia, expanded to include a personal loan service called Karrot based on the same technology and service. Kabbage received $120 million during its recent Series E round from BlueRun Ventures, Santander UK, Thomvest Ventures, and the UPS Strategic Enterprise Fund.
- Giosis, $82.1 Million – Giosis operates the e-marketplace Qoo10, one of the largest of its kind in Asia. Aside from the company’s base in Singapore, Qoo10 has users in four countries – China (including Hong Kong), Japan, Indonesia, and Malaysia. The company has also spread to offering its platform through a mobile app, the numbers of users of which are rapidly climbing. Giosis received $82.1 million in funding during its Series A venture capital round from Singapore Press Holdings, Brookside Capital, eBay, Oak Investment Partners, Saban Capital Group, and UVM 2 Venture Investments.
- Clean Fund, $60 Million – Clean Fund is a national leader in commercial PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) financing. The company’s direct financing program provides up to 30-year, nonrecourse financing for major renovations involving solar, water, and energy efficiency projects. Clean Fund received $60 million through their recent Venture round.
- CircleBack Lending, $17.5 Million – CircleBack Lending is an internet-based consumer lending platform that aims to provide prime and super-prime consumers in the United States a fast and efficient way to borrow money at attractive interest rates and offer institutional and high-net-worth individual investors a robust, transparent platform to invest in these consumer loans. CircleBack’s Series A round gained them $17.5 million in funding.