PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The leader on the P2P lending market in France and continental Europe, PRÊT D’UNION has raised 10 M€ in a new financing round led by SCHIBSTED (owner of Leboncoin.fr and shareholder of 20 Minutes in France) with the participation of its historical shareholders. This brings PRET D’UNION’s total funding to over 18M€ since its launch in October 2009.
PRÊT D’UNION’s co-founders, employees and business angels welcome SCHIBSTED as a new shareholder joining prestigious historical investors such as CREDIT MUTUEL ARKEA, Xavier Niel and Jérémie Berrebi’s KIMA VENTURES, WEBER INVESTISSEMENTS and AG2R LA MONDIALE. Following the investment, Marc Brandsma and Marine Desbans from Schibsted Growth will join PRÊT D’UNION’s supervisory board.
PRÊT D’UNION is the first and only P2P lending platform to have obtained a credit institution license and a broker licence from the French Central Bank. The management team includes the 4 co-founders, Charles EGLY (ex BNP Paribas), Geoffroy GUIGOU (ex McKinsey & Poweo), Lionel BEAUDET (ex Virgin Mobile) and Thomas BEYLOT (ex PriceMinister.com), under the supervision of a board composed of experienced executives from banks and financial companies.
“PRÊT D’UNION facilitated 47 M€ of loans over the last 22 months and 35 M€ from January to October 2013. We have reached a volume of more than 5 M€ of new loans every month, with a 10% monthly growth rate. This new financing round has been largely oversubscribed, setting a new milestone in our growth history. It will enable us to accelerate our development through innovative technological projects - big data and risk pricing, new recruitments and innovative offers for our customers, both lenders and borrowers.” Charles EGLY, CEO, and Geoffroy GUIGOU, General Manager of PRÊT D’UNION.
“Being able to sign up a media powerhouse like SCHIBSTED which owns leading websites such as Leboncoin.fr as a new shareholder and retaining our historical shareholders demonstrates our business model’s potential as an innovative and socially responsible platform. PRÊT D’UNION aims at achieving both in France and in Europe what Lending Club has achieved in the United States.” Donald BRYDEN, Chairman of the Supervisory Board
“We share with PRET D’UNION the values of integrity, transparency and respect of our customers that make the strength of SCHIBSTED. Selecting PRET D’UNION for our first investment in France emphasizes our strong commitment to build an ecosystem of innovative companies leveraging the group’s audience and expertise in order to boost their growth.” Marc BRANDSMA, Managing Director at SCHIBSTED GROWTH
About PRÊT D’UNION
PRÊT D’UNION was founded in October 2009 and launched in October 2011. PRÊT D’UNION was born out of a simple observation: in France, traditional financial institutions charge consumers high interest rates for loans (up to 20% for revolving loans) while in the main time they offer low returns on savings. To tackle this problem, PRÊT D’UNION launched the first “peer-to-peer” lending service in France, enabling qualified investors with savings (individuals, foundations, companies, institutions…) to fund personal consumer loans through an innovative and secured online platform. Lenders benefit from a responsible savings product which finance the real economy in France while getting higher returns compared to traditional investments. Borrowers benefit from transparent and responsible loans (no revolving loans, amortizing loans only) with the most competitive rates on the market.
PRÊT D’UNION obtained a credit institution license and a broker licence from the French Central Bank (accreditation ID: 16488).
About SCHIBSTED
SCHIBSTED was created in 1839 in Norway and grew into an international media and Internet group. Listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange since 1992, it has a market capitalization of around 4.5 billion Euros. SCHIBSTED has 7,800 employees and operates in 29 countries in Europe, South America and Asia. In France, SCHIBSTED operates 20 Minutes, France’s most read daily newspaper with 4,376,000 readers a day, and Leboncoin.fr, France’s leading online classified ads service and 8th largest website with 17,610,000 unique visitors in June 2013. SCHIBSTED GROWTH is the corporate development branch of SCHIBSTED MEDIA GROUP. With offices in Oslo, Paris and Stockholm, SCHIBSTED GROWTH aims at building an ecosystem of innovative companies leveraging the group’s online assets in media and classifieds to accelerate their growth and become leaders on their market.
