Three new P2P lenders are known to be preparing to go to market in 2008:
- GlobeFunder: Opened for loan applications earlier this month, but is still not accepting individual lenders at this point. I tried testing the loan application, but it would not accept requests from Washington state.
- Fynanz is the latest P2P lender to surface. According to the Prosper Lending Review blog, the company is gearing up to enter the U.S. market specializing in student loans, a space that Virgin Money USA has said it will enter later this year. Fynanz founder is Chirag Chaman, although he is not listed on the company's website.
- Loanio: Has been saying "coming in January" for the past several months.
In addition, I know of three others in formation and I'm sure there are dozens of others circulating business plans. With 100+ million potential customers in the United States, there is probably room for dozens to co-exist, although only a few will ever become household names.
For a complete analysis of the market see our most recent Online Banking Report (here).