I first mentioned Money360 on Lend Academy way back in 2010. Back then they made an initial foray into marketplace lending but the timing was not right. Four years later they relaunched the company and have had much more success the second time around.

There are not many companies in online lending that are doing something truly unique but I think we can put Able Lending into this category. While they offer small business term loans they have a unique twist that can lower the cost of lending for the borrower. They invite their borrowers to raise a portion of their loan from friends and family – these people are called backers.

The real estate crowdfunding space is quite competitive today but not many companies, particularly those less than two years old, are making a profit. Sharestates launched in February 2015 and have been profitable now for over a year.

We have never featured anyone from Canada on the podcast but there has been a lot happening north of the border this year. Leading the way is Borrowell, a consumer marketplace lender that is been in business for about two years now. But in those two years they have accomplished a lot.

Most of the guests on this podcast work for companies that are less than 10 years old, many less than five. But our next guest on the Lend Academy Podcast co-founded his company in 1996.

In developed countries such as the UK and Australia many people find loans through an intermediary. This is where an independent website gathers information from various lenders and helps the borrower make an informed choice on their loan.

The Marketplace Lending Association (MLA) launched in April of this year with three members: Lending Club, Prosper and Funding Circle. There have been many other initiatives that have launched in the past year but the MLA is the first one to have hired a full time person in Washington DC.

Lending Club has endured some very public challenges this year as we all know. But the company has rebounded from the lows they experienced after the resignation of the founder, Renaud Laplanche, and they are building again for the future. The new CEO, Scott Sanborn, has rebuilt his executive team with many new faces from traditional financial services.

The UK was the country that invented peer to peer lending. And London is considered to be one of the top fintech hubs on the planet. One of the leading sectors of fintech is peer to peer lending and Mike Baliman, the creator of the London Fintech Podcast, has been following along very closely.

Many years ago Brendan Ross was a Registered Investment Advisor and he was the first such person to invest his clients money in marketplace lending. Then back in 2012 he pivoted and started the first fund dedicated to high yield small business loans creating Direct Lending Investments in the process.