Marketplace lender SocietyOne has announced the successful capital raising of an additional $25 million to support the company’s ambitious growth plans.
The latest equity raising takes the total amount of capital raised by SocietyOne to more than $55 million from institutional and individual sophisticated shareholders since March 2014.
According to the marketplace lender, the Series C capital raising attracted strong support from the company’s primary shareholders including Australian Capital Equity, Consolidated Press Holdings, News Corporation Australia, Seven West Media and
Westpac Banking Corporation’s Reinventure Fund.
In addition, two new institutional shareholders have joined the share register as a part of the equity raising. They are G&C Mutual Bank and the Maritime, Mining and Power Credit Union. Both institutions are also funding investors of SocietyOne’s loans to its borrower customers.
SocietyOne chairman, Anthony Kerwick, said the success of the Series C capital raising was a milestone for the lender and the marketplace lending sector as a whole.
“This is a very exciting milestone in SocietyOne’s development and represents a significant step forward for the company and for the marketplace lending sector as a whole,” he said.
“This latest show of support from our shareholders is a clear indication of their commitment to the revolution that is now underway in financial services.
SocietyOne CEO, Jason Yetton, said the latest support from shareholders indicates the fintech has moved from “start-up phase” to the “scale-up phase”.
“With loan applications growing strongly and loans funded now standing at more than $100 million, we are clearly delivering on the ambitions set by us and on behalf of all of our stakeholders,” Yetton said.
“As a result, I am confident we will be cash-flow positive from operations over the next two years which will be a major achievement for a company that didn’t exist before 2012.”
Yetton said SocietyOne was targeting significant expansion over the next five years with the aim of helping 100,000 customers and growing its total loans and matching funding to a 2-3% of the $105 billion consumer finance market, excluding housing.
Loans to customers have risen from $1 million to $10 million over six quarters to June 2014 and then from $10 million to $100 million over seven quarters to April this year. Growth in the quarter to March 2016 alone was $30 million.
