Peer-to-peer lender planning small business expansion
(14 August 2017 – Australia) Peer-to-peer lender, SocietyOne has revealed plans to enter the small business online lending market.
The firm’s Chief Executive, Jason Yetton said, “We have gone from being an idea to a business now valued by thousands of customers.”
“Marketplace lending is not just limited to personal loans,” he added.
While it entered the market as personal lending business, SocietyOne has had exposure to business lending via its Livestock Loans platform. The company says it has lent around $70 million to businesses since 2015.
“Our model is based on matching the borrowers of capital with the users of capital. It’s a model that can be used to service the SME lending market,” Yetton said.
According to Yetton, the product has proved that SocietyOne can tap into a market that has not been effectively serviced by the banks.
“We will be looking at other segments of the SME market that are underserviced. That’s the next cab off the rank for us.”
The move comes as prominent online lender Prospa secured an extra A$20 million debt facility from Silicon Valley based commercial finance provider, Partner For Growth, and the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman announced a collaborative research project with fintech lending industry into best practice in the online lending market.
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