Prosper.com announced on Wednesday that it had received a new round of venture capital totaling $17.2 million lead by Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Crosslink Capital. Existing investors Accel Partners, CompuCredit, Omidyar Network, TomorrowVentures and Volition Capital also participated in this latest round of funding.
The company announced that Draper Fisher Jurvetson founder Tim Draper will be joining Prosper’s board of directors. Additionally, Crosslink Capital COO Jerome Contro will join the company’s board.
Prosper has raised $74.7 million in funding to date.
Here’s the official press release:
Prosper.com, the world’s largest peer-to-peer lending marketplace with nearly one million members and over 32,000 funded loans totaling over $194 million, today announced that it has raised $14.7 million in a Series D round from new investors TomorrowVentures, LLC and CompuCredit Holdings Corporation and all of Prosper’s existing investors: Accel Partners, Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures, Meritech Capital Partners, Omidyar Network, QED Investors, and Volition Capital (formerly Fidelity Ventures). Including this latest round of financing, Prosper has raised a total of $57.7 million to date.
Prosper also announced that Court Coursey, Managing Partner at TomorrowVentures, will join the company’s Board of Directors. Prosper’s other Board members include, Jim Breyer of Accel Partners; Larry Cheng of Volition Capital; Bob Kagle of Benchmark Capital; and Capital One Co-founder Nigel Morris of QED Investors.
“We were attracted to Prosper because it offers a game-changing solution and is poised to capitalize on the consumer lending market in a substantial manner,” said Court Coursey, Managing Partner at TomorrowVentures. “Prosper is the leader in the space and positioned to be at the forefront of revolutionizing fundamental aspects of the financial services industry for many years to come.”
Prosper, America’s first peer-to-peer lending marketplace, maintains approximately two-thirds of the U.S. peer-to-peer lending market and, according to Deutsche Bank Research, Prosper is the largest peer-to-peer lending marketplace worldwide. Gartner Research has forecasted that the peer-to-peer lending industry will “soar at least 66 percent to $5 billion of outstanding loans by 2013.” Prosper crossed the $1 billion milestone in consumer loan demand in March 2008 and has now surpassed $1.8 billion in demand.
“We are greatly appreciative of the tremendous support and commitment shown by our early backers, and honored by the caliber and strategic depth of our new investors,” said Chris Larsen, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Prosper. “This latest round of financing strengthens our leadership position and our charge toward continuing to pave the way for bringing the benefits of a third way of banking – peer-to-peer lending – into the mainstream.”
Larsen continued, “The reset button has been hit for consumers who are frustrated with credit companies and a dearth of financing options, and for investors who want to play an active role in reshaping the financial services industry as we’ve known it. Prosper is committed to giving people more power and freedom over the status quo and we’re motivated by what this change-up means for the future of financial services in America and around the globe.”
