LendingClub

With rising revenues, Lending Club CEO plans expansion (Q&A)

For Renaud Laplanche, founder and chief executive of Lending Club, things are looking up -- or more accurately, up and to the right.

That's the desirable direction that the startup's finances are heading at present. Lending Club connects investors who have money to lend with borrowers who need it, making money on fees as it goes. Of late, the value of the loans it's arranged has been increasing at 9 percent each month. In May, the San Francisco-based company funded $148 million in loans, and Laplanche expects 2013 will total $2 billion.

Laplanche, a 42-year-old born in … Read more

Google drops cash into Lending Club for minority interest

Google has dropped a significant investment into loan-pairing company Lending Club, the companies announced today.

Lending Club announced today that Google has invested in its operation to take a minority stake in the company. Lending Club didn't say exactly how much Google invested, but did say that it was part of a $125 million round of financing. Google and another investor, Foundation Capital, acquired shares from existing investors.

Since its founding in 2007, Lending Club has been growing significantly. The company facilitates loan transactions between those who need cash and those who are willing to dole it out. Lending … Read more

Lending Club plans IPO -- maybe within 18 months

PARIS -- Lending Club, a startup that connects people who want to borrow money with those who want to lend it, is profitable and plans to go public.

Chief Executive Renaud Laplanche discussed the initial public offering at the LeWeb conference here. "We're planning on going public in the next few years," he said in an on-stage interview, then confirmed he'd earlier said 18 months.

An IPO of course brings new funds, though Lending Club currently has $50 million in cash, but Laplanche said he wants to go public for the higher profile it brings. "… Read more

Webware Radar: Photobucket teams with T-Mobile

A correction was made to this post. Read below for details.

Photo-sharing site Photobucket announced Thursday that it has inked a deal with T-Mobile that makes it a provider of a mobile photo service for T-Mobile customers. According to the company, users will be able to send photos directly from their mobile phone to their Photobucket album, their PC hard drive, or any e-mail address. To use the app, customers will need to download it onto their BlackBerry Curve, Pearl, or any one of three Windows Mobile devices. The app is available in a free 21-day trial. Once that period … Read more

Webware Radar: Virgin looks to 'uncrunch' frozen credit markets

Financial services firm, Virgin Money announced Wednesday that it has joined the Uncrunch.org campaign in an attempt to raise awareness about alternative, social sources of credit for both consumers and businesses. Virgin joins Geezeo, Lending Club, OnDeck Capital, Credit Karma, and ChangeWave, while trying to "unthaw" the credit markets by giving consumers and businesses an online resource to research and find credit.

Uncrunch's focus is social lending, which is why Virgin Money joined the campaign (the company has close to $400 million in social loan volume). Those who surf to Uncrunch will be able to learn … Read more

Peer-to-peer lending is not dead yet

Stories this morning in the New York Times, TechCrunch, and Valleywag are spelling the doom of the peer-to-peer lending business. Battered by high default rates, regulatory blocks, and investors skittish to fund new concepts with their own cash, the model appears to be one for happier times. In this economy, who wants to monkey around with flaky Web 2.0 financial instruments?

But perhaps it's not the model itself that's flawed, it's just the implementation and the timing. One of the peer-to-peer lenders, Lending Club, just this week received regulatory approval to pursue not just peer-to-peer lending … Read more