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Capital Opportunities for Small Businesses - sbtdc

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C A P I T A L O P P O R T U N I T I E S F O R SMA L L B U S I N E S S E S<br />

connect businesses with brokers and not lenders. For start-up businesses, franchises are the most likely<br />

to find some success via loan matching sites.<br />

Peer-to-Peer Lending (P2P)<br />

Peer-to-peer lending, in which groups of individuals make loans to entrepreneurs through<br />

matchmaking web sites such as Lending Club and Prosper, has gained significant popularity in the last<br />

few years. Most peer-to-peer loans are unsecured personal loans, largely based on personal credit<br />

scores, with a maximum loan amount of $35,000.<br />

The lending intermediaries are <strong>for</strong>-profit businesses; they generate revenue by collecting a onetime<br />

fee on funded loans from borrowers and by assessing a loan servicing fee to investors<br />

(either a fixed amount annually or a percentage of the loan amount).<br />

Does it cost more to borrow from nontraditional lenders Often, yes. At Lending Club, <strong>for</strong> instance,<br />

interest rates range from 6 – 26%, based on an assessment of risk and volatility . Peer-to-peer lending<br />

may be useful when small amounts of funds are needed, and banks are not interested in investing at<br />

that level.<br />

Peer-to-Peer Lending Sites<br />

ACCION USA<br />

115 East 23rd Street, 7th Floor<br />

New York, NY 10010<br />

212.387.0377<br />

info@accionusa.org<br />

www.accionusa.org/default.aspx<br />

Lending Club<br />

71 Stevenson, Suite 300<br />

San Fransisco, CA 94105<br />

866.754.4094<br />

www.lendingclub.com/home.action<br />

GlobeFunder Ventures, Inc.<br />

271-A West Centre #211<br />

Portage, MI 49024<br />

888.870.1304<br />

www.globefunder.com<br />

Prosper Marketplace, Inc.<br />

111 Sutter Street, 22nd Floor<br />

San Francisco, CA 94104<br />

866.615.6319<br />

www.prosper.com<br />

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