CircleOne Rumored to Launch Soon
Michael Arrington
12 comments »
Update: February 5, 2006: CircleOne is now called Prosper.
Rumors are flying that a super-stealth BenchMark backed company called CircleOne (also known as p2pcredit) will be launching as soon as this weekend. The domain name, www.circleone.com, is not yet live.
If the rumors are correct, the company will be similar to Zopa, a London based company that we profiled in August. Zopa syndicates small loans out to many people, taking a fee..
Whois information on the domain (registered at register.com) shows the company is located in San Francisco.
Something about the rumor must be wrong…Benchmark has also invested in Zopa, which has announced that they will be launching in the U.S. at some point.
Update: An ebay employee has joined circleone and has a profile on LinkedIn (I am not going to point to it). This person describes CircleOne in the profile as follows:
CircleOne is a consumer loan platform through which people can borrow money by setting their own interest rates, like an eBay for personal loans.
CircleOne’s founding principle is that people from close communities act more responsibly towards each other. CircleOne leverages this powerful concept of group responsibility and applies it to person-to-person lending – resulting in better interest rates for people that borrow and lend.
Zopa is an unfortunate name, means “ass” in russian.
This sort of open, person-to-person lending system where actual supply and demand set the interest rate could revolutionize loans and financing. Expect the banks to fight this tooth and nail if it takes off (and I hope it does).
This service competes with organized crime. However, I think many people will prefer techies pulling up in a volkswagon threatening to break your mobile phone if you don’t pay up soon…
CircleOne is co-financed by Benchmark. I saw a job posting by “p2pcredit” on the web that stated so.
If anyone wants a referal to the site and more importantly the password needed to access it, email me
hdglasses@direcway.com
I am a CircleOne founding groupleader
Seems like this would gohand in hand with Neighbor Ring http://www.neighborring.org
which provides P2P lending of ITEMS (including DVDs) and SKILLS. You can also create a branded ring for your local club community
I think this is a very innovative and promising idea.