Happy Birthday, Harmoney! The peer-to-peer (P2P) platform celebrated a successful first year as a New Zealand’s operating P2P lender, achieving unprecedented growth, creating jobs in New Zealand, Australia and Fiji and is currently preparing to launch in Australia.
Harmoney highlights:
- Facilitated $100 million of personal loans in less than 12 months
- 65 new jobs created
Launched on 10 September 2014 with $100 million of committed lending capital from institutions including Blue Elephant Capital Management & Heartland Bank- Heartland Bank becomes a 10% shareholder
- Welcomed Trade Me as a 15% shareholder (January 2015) at $55m valuation
Borrower highlights:
- 70,000 loan applications received c. $1bn in value
- Proprietary credit scorecard delivering expected credit performance
- 90% of loans funded by the marketplace within 24 hours
Investor highlights:
- Welcomed 3000 active individual investors with average account balance of $6,000
- Generated average realised yield of c.13% (net of fees and losses)
- Investors earned total interest income of $6m
- Welcomed several large institutional investors incl. Marshall Wace LLP / P2P Global Investments PLC
Chairman Rob Campbell revealed Harmoney’s online marketplace facilitated $100 million in personal loans in its first 12 months, and is setting new lending records:
“Harmoney has much to be proud of. We were the first P2P marketplace in the world to launch with $100 million lending capital, and we welcomed two high profile shareholders; Heartland Bank and Trade Me. These events have been the foundation of our success. Kiwis, in keeping with their reputation as early adopters, are embracing Harmoney’s P2P offering with enthusiasm.
“We are achieving phenomenal growth, and in 12 months have attracted 70,000 loan enquiries worth $1bn and welcomed 3,000 active personal investors to our marketplace. With the exception of China, this level of growth is unheard of, and reflects the hard work and experience of the team.”
Harmoney’s focus is on acquiring and retaining creditworthy borrowers, CEO, Neil Roberts stated. He noted:
“The team wanted to limit the exposure to higher risk customers, so apply risk-grade lending limits, and only fund a fraction of the applications received. Using our proprietary scorecard lower risk ‘A’ credit grade applicants can borrow up to $35,000, compared to just $5,000 for an ‘F’ customer.”
Harmoney’s median customer has a C1 risk profile; a solid customer to finance. A typical C1 applicant has an unblemished credit history, is 45 – 49 years old and married with a mortgage. They are using the funds to consolidate high interest personal loans and credit cards or for home improvements.