Historically — and by “historically” I mean since the early 2000s — aggregators have largely fueled online lending.
But something seems to be happening in the online lending aggregation space, or at least aggregation of small business lending.
Yesterday, OnDeck Capital reported its third quarter earnings (+67% YOY originations growth), and as it was briefing investors on its performance, it disclosed a new reality about aggregators: they don’t matter to OnDeck Capital.
Here’s how CEO Noah Breslow put it:
So when we think about aggregators, we are thinking about places like LendingTree, Credit Karma and other sites like that, and what I can say is that year-to-date our volume through those sites is about 4% of our overall volumes.
So I think the aggregator channel — I know a lot has been discussed in the media about that channel and how it plays out in marketplace lending. I guess for small business, really for us especially at OnDeck, it hasn’t been a big historical volume driver. We are definitely working with all the players and aggregators in the aggregate channel to increase volumes. … But to be clear, our business is not reliant on those channels in any shape or form.
That 4% of overall volume amounts to about $53 million of loans through the end of the third quarter.
Sure, this could be OnDeck-specific, but consider that Customers Bank recently tapped Biz2Credit to build out its digital small business lending platform. You will remember that Customers Bank is the FI captained by Jay Sidhu that sprouted BankMobile, the innovative digital banking venture. The Biz2Credit platform, which will go live in 2016, will beef up Customers’s direct small business lending capabilities — presumably bypassing the aggregators.
Before you start crying for LendingTree, know that its revenue last quarter climbed 69% to nearly $70 million, compared to the same period in 2014. LendingTree reports its revenue performance for “mortgage” and “non-mortgage” credit products. It pointed out last week when it announced earnings that its credit card revenue was up 574% compared to 2Q and personal loans revenue were 325% higher than it was in 3Q14. It made no mention of its small business revenue last quarter.
* * *
In other news from OnDeck, Breslow indicated that he is hearing from VCs that the boom in marketplace lending ventures is O V E R.
Obviously, a lot of activity in the marketplace lending space. I did get a sense from some venture capitalists I talked to that we are getting in the late innings of certainly company formation, and I think if companies don’t have a really differentiated offerings or something new to offer the space, the lack of scale, the lack of experience, the fact that some of these companies might be bigger targets for fraud or bad actors is going to maybe discourage some of that formation. But I think maybe another couple of quarters before we see that payout in the actually funding data.
* * *
OnDeck is on track to launch in Australia by yearend. Breslow: “So absolutely on track with regards to international and we do see that as a growth driver in the next couple of years for sure.”
Learn more about marketplace lending at Bank Innovation Israel in Tel Aviv, Nov. 10-11. Request your invite here.