Dianrong, a very large peer to peer lender in China (far bigger than any platform in the US), did some chest pounding yesterday. In a release, Dianrong claimed the US Department of Commerce named the Chinese online lender the “Leader in China’s P2P Lending Segment.” The Commerce report was a publication that Crowdfund Insider recently covered. Initially published this past May, Commerce did qualify China as gaining significant traction in the global fintech sector. And Dianrong is correct that the authors praised Dianrong as a leader. To quote;
“There are currently three main players in the peer-to peer lending market in China with Dianrong leading the segment. Monthly online lending volume reached 120 billion Yuan ($19 billion) in October 2015, four times the level of October 2014, according to a report jointly published by online lender Wangdaizhijia and consulting firm Yingcan. Dianrong.com has set up 26 offices within the country, has 300,000 active lenders and originates about one billion Yuan in new loans 52 monthly, according to the company.”
Dianrong was founded in 2012 by former Lending Club co-founder Soul Htite. He had the foresight and motivation to leave Lending Club while it was still ascendant and move to launch a far bigger P2P lending platform in what will soon be the largest economy in the world. Dianrong has received the backing of many well known VCs including Tiger Global PE, Northern Lights VC, Standard Chartered Private Equity Limited, Bohai Financial Investment Holding Co.,Ltd., China Fintech Fund and Max Giant Capital Limited. While we are not certain if it is in fact the largest P2P lender in China it is certainly one of the biggest. Dianrong is also setting its sights on regional expansion. I wonder if Htite will re-enter the US market one day?