In recent years, alternative financing has grown considerably, with P2P Lending in the US attracting a large amount of money through companies such as Lending Club, Prosper Marketplace and Funding Circle.
Crowfunding also plays an important role. Last week, Alphaworks launched its crowdfunding platform, other major players in this scenario include Kickstarter and Indiegogo.
Contribution of venture capital to crowdfunding and P2P Lending
Venture capital is playing an important role in the growth of alternative financial services. "Venture capital's support for these models is facilitating the disintermediation that is so necessary after the financial crisis, bringing simplicity and transparency to the process of direct financing between lenders and borrowers," says Diego Gutierrez, an expert in alternative financing from Abra Invest.
As shown in the graph below, venture capital funding for P2P lending has been growing in recent years, reaching a total of $715M since 2009, an amount considerably higher than the amount raised by crowdfunding, $237M, in the same period.
Venture capital in P2P lending
Lending Club is the P2P Lending company that has raised the most funds from investors such as Norwest Venture Partners, Canaan Partners and Union Square Ventures.
But there are also other PS2P Lending companies that get large amounts, such as China's Renrendaiwhich raised a $ 130M round last January by Trustbridge Partners. Others that have raised more than $25M since 2009 have been the UK's Funding Circle, Prosper Marketplace anchored by Benchmark Capital and Zopa.
"In Spain, the benchmark for P2Plending is comunitae which has been lending to individuals since 2009 and has more than 4,000 lenders on its platform. A few months ago, it opened a new line to discount promissory notes to SMEs, as has emerged in the UK. On the other hand, there have been several crowdfunding platforms that have come into being such as Thecrowdangel promoted by Inveready but none of them have received a significant injection of money," analyses Diego Gutierrez.
Venture capital in crowdfunding
Crowdfunding is also making big rounds. Last month, the crowdfunding platform Indiegogo raised a $ 40M round, which was attended by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Venture Institutional Partners. In addition, the platform Angellist, which was approved by the SEC in early 2013 received a round of funding recently for $24M.
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