P2P Lending News

Microlending darling Kiva has announced today that they will start allowing lenders to fund loans to Americans. Although Kiva has facilitated over $75 million in loans to entrepreneurs (Kiva calls them “the working poor”) in developing nations since 2005, this is the first time that American residents have been able to take advantage of the Kiva platform from the borrowing side. Kiva cites the current credit crisis in the U.S., which prevents entrepreneurs from raising the cash they need to keep their businesses going, as a primary motivator.

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Social lending juggernaut Zopa announced today, on its third birthday, that they will open a P2P lending site in Japan, the world’s second largest economy. The joint venture, Zopa Japan KK, will be led by finance veteran and chairman Takeshi Yoneda and CEO Tatsuya Kuboi.

No date has been set for the site’s launch, but Zopa follows American P2P lending company Prosper, who announced a joint venture with SBI Holdings to launch a Japanese site in August 2007. During 2007, Zopa launched sites in both the United States as well as Italy.

In a press release Monday, Prosper announced a joint venture with Japan-based SBI Holdings to expand the Prosper brand into the Japanese and other Asian markets through SBI Prosper. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Hayato Kameta has been picked to become CEO of Prosper Japan. Regulatory and technical integration hurdles remain before the site can be opened to the public. No word was given on when the new site might launch.

SBI is a spin-off of Softbank, the Japanese investment behemoth from Web 1.0 days, and has made a business of running copycats of American web sites such as E*TRADE, Morningstar, and InsWeb. Chris Larsen, CEO of Prosper, orchestrated a similar Japanese joint venture with SBI for his previous company, E-LOAN.

Yesterday, Zopa sent out yet another email message to its US audience announcing the imminent launch of Zopa US. This marks the third time that Zopa has made serious claims about launching a P2P lending site in the US:

1. Crossing the Pond - Jan 2006, launch estimated for “early this year (2006)”, later revised to “Q2 2006″
2. Zopa raises $15m for US launch - Mar 2006, launch estimated for “later this year (2006)”
3. Zopa revises plans for U.S. debut, will start with national service - Apr 2007, launch estimated for “later this year (2007)”

Let’s hope they pull it off sometime this decade…