CircleBack Lending, Inc., a marketplace lending platform, has completed a $17.4 Million Series A round of equity financing led by Pine River Capital Management, a global alternative asset manager with over $15 billion under management. Wicklow Capital, an early investor in CircleBack, also participated with a follow-on investment.
Additionally, Pine River has entered into an agreement granting it the right to purchase as much as $500 million in aggregate principal amount of high-quality consumer loans originated by CircleBack. Michael Solomon, CircleBack’s CEO, shared:
“This is another great milestone for CircleBack, particularly with Pine River’s expertise in consumer and commercial credit assets. The proceeds will be used to continue scaling in a thoughtful and responsible manner,” said Solomon. “Our objective is to build a sustainable business in the high-growth marketplace lending arena, which PriceWaterhouseCoopers estimates could be as big as $150 billion within the next 10 years.”
Since its launch in 2013, CircleBack has facilitated the origination of over $200 million in loans to high-quality borrowers for a range of purposes including debt consolidation, home improvement and small business. The marketplace lending industry has evolved rapidly in recent years and billions of dollars per year of loans are now being issued, purchased and securitized. Despite this swift growth, the industry’s loan volumes have significant room to expand relative to the overall $11 trillion U.S. consumer credit market.