Social lending site Zopa is to launch in Japan, following its expansion to the US and Italy from its UK base. The site, three years old today, has attracted around £18 million of funding, including that from Benchmark Capital, which has also invested in US competitor Prosper. Zopa is an online marketplace where people meet to lend and borrow money. With no bank in the middle, both parties can potentially get better rates. Since March of 2005, Zopa has handled more than £20m in unsecured personal loans in the UK. However, although Zopa was the first, there are now more than 20 person-to-person online social lenders around the globe. GlobeFunder is a US competitor which launched in January this year. Gartner predicts that by 2010 social banking will make up 10% of the banking market. More on TechCrunch UK.
Interesting move by Zopa! Have been expecting a lot of moves from them lately.. zopa truly is innovative! Expecting more …!!
Congrats on Japan expansion!
Cheers!
I wish these startups would come to Canada
Gotta love the name. “Zopa” is an “Ass” in Russian.
Please, don’t come with the name to RF
@Peter
there are p2p lending startups in Canada
http://www.wise...untries/canada/
One did launch but was suspended by regulator
#3
In my mother tongue (Western India) … “Zopa” is “go to sleep”
ofcourse not as funny as yours
it’s funny to say … Go to Sleep [you] Ass
You mentioned Globefunder and Prosper and competitors in the U.S. Globefunder is not really P2P lending – the money is invested by institutions, not individuals.
Lending Club and Prosper are the two main P2P lending companies in the U.S. Zopa’s model is a little different since the lender purchases a CD at a set interest rate instead of selecting which borrowers they want to fund.
Prosper is also looking to launch in Japan this year.
As #5 mentioned, there are a couple companies that should launch soon in Canada – CommunityLend and IOU Central. IOU Central was open for a couple weeks last month before shutting down to meet regulatory requirements.
There is an expression in Russia “I am in ‘Zopa’” meaning “I am screwed”
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