Nigel Morris Joins Board of Directors and QED Investors Invests in Prosper
SAN FRANCISCO--PIN Payments News Blog- Prosper, the largest peer-to-peer lending marketplace in the U.S. with over $180 million in loans and 870,000 members, today announced that Nigel W. Morris, Co-Founder of Capital One, has joined its Board of Directors and his venture capital firm, QED Investors, has invested in the company.
“The future of consumer and small business finance is changing rapidly, and Prosper is at the forefront of this transformation,” said Nigel Morris, Managing Partner of QED Investors. “By disintermediating banks, Prosper’s model allows consumers to directly benefit, both on the lending and borrowing sides. We are excited to be part of a company that will play a pivotal role in the future of lending.”
“To maximize and fast track our growth and revenue potential, we’re honing our strategy to holistically approach marketing and risk modeling,” said Chris Larsen, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Prosper. “Bringing in Nigel Morris and his team of operationally-oriented investors will immediately enhance our own team’s analytical capability. And just as Nigel and his team were able to deploy such a capability at Capital One to revolutionize the consumer lending industry, we expect our team at Prosper to revolutionize the P2P lending space."
Nigel Morris co-founded Capital One in 1994, and during his ten-year tenure, Capital One’s customer base grew to an extraordinary 45 million, managed loans increased to more than $70 billion and the company emerged as one of the top seven issuers of MasterCard and Visa credit cards in the world.
Nigel Morris is currently the managing partner of QED Investors, a direct investment fund focused on high-growth companies that leverage the power of data strategies. In addition, he works in an advisory capacity with General Atlantic Partners, Columbia Capital, and Oliver Wyman. He also serves on the board of The Economist Group, London Business School, and Venture Philanthropy Partners.
Prosper is America’s largest peer-to-peer lending marketplace with over 870,000 and $184 million in loans. It pioneered peer-to-peer lending, which allows people to invest in each other in a way that is socially and financially rewarding. Prosper's auction model provides an open and transparent way to get a personal loan or invest in loans on terms that are favorable to everyone involved in the transaction.
People and institutions list and bid on loans using Prosper's online auction platform. Borrowers can list loan requests between $1,000 and $25,000 on Prosper and set the maximum rate they are willing to pay an investor for the loan, and tell their story. People and institutional investors register on Prosper as lenders, then set their minimum interest rates, and bid in increments of $25 to $25,000 on loan listings they select. In addition to criteria commonly used by institutional lenders, such as credit scores and histories, Prosper lenders can consider borrowers' personal stories, endorsements from friends, and community affiliations.
Once the auction ends, Prosper takes the bids with the lowest rates and combines them to facilitate the funding of one simple loan to the borrower, and then issues what are called "Notes" to all the winning bidders. Prosper handles all on-going loan administration tasks including loan repayment and collections on behalf of the matched borrowers and investors. Prosper members are then able to trade Notes with other members on the Folio Investing Note Trader platform, provided by Foliofn Investments, Inc. Follow Prosper on twitter @prosperloans Notes offered by Prospectus.
