Peer-to-peer lending company Lending Club hit a major milestone this week: $100 million in loans funded. Based on current monthly volume, they are the leading P2P lender in the U.S. and are running head to head with Zopa UK for the top spot worldwide. Lending Club is the third P2P lender to reach this level, following fellow Finovate alums Zopa and Prosper.
Recent Milestones
Lending Club recently marked a number of milestones. On March 18, the company funded loan number 10,000. The company also recently surpassed $1 billion in loan applications.
Other highlights from Lending Club’s history show it:
- was founded in 2006 and officially launched in 2007
- made its industry debut at the first Finovate conference (video here).
- issued $3 million in loans in its first three months
- registered with the SEC in 2008
- raised $12 million in investment capital in Mar. 2009
- rolled out its new look in Feb. 2010
- has paid out $6.9 million in interest to investors
Many of the company’s accomplishments have been covered by our Netbanker blog (Lending Club posts available here).
Website remodel
Lending Club also recently updated its visual style by changing its logo and redesigning its website.
The old site (see screenshot #1, below) presented the reader with a lot of text, including news, information, and endorsements. The new site (screenshot #2) achieves a cleaner, less cluttered look by presenting visitors with two large boxes – one for investors and one for borrowers. It highlights only a few key data points such as average investor returns.
According to Lending Club’s director of product strategy, Rob Garcia (statement here), the new look is intended to be “smart and simple,” reflecting the concept of Lending Club.
Over the past year, Lending Club saw about 100,000 unique U.S. visitors each month, with a significant spike in December and slight decline last month.
#1 Lending Club’s previous look…
#2 … and the company’s new look (as of 31 Mar 2010)
anthonyuchung 
What is not mentioned is that peer-to-peer lending is primarily for people with better than average credit.
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