Australia-based P2P lender SocietyOne announced it has appointed Jason Yetton, former senior executive at Westpac, as its new CEO.
Prior to his position at Westpac, he played a variety of roles at BT Financial Group. Yetton, a graduate of Harvard Business School’s General Manager program, was recently selected as a member of the federal government’s fintech advisory group.
Yetton will begin in his new role on Monday. SocietyOne’s current CEO & co-founder Matt Symons will assume a new role as chief strategy and innovation officer.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Yetton will face a number of challenges in his new role:
- Building awareness of P2P lending (a concept that has been slow to take root in Australia) and ramping up marketing to promote the SocietyOne brand as a leader in the space.
- Adding retail investors to the SocietyOne platform
- Preparing the company for a potential IPO
Since launching in 2012, SocietyOne has matched more than $78 million in loans. This week alone, the startup originated a record $8.7 million in loans. According to The Australian Business Review, The company has secured 2% to 3% of the nation’s $100 billion unsecured lending market.
SocietyOne launched ClearMatch at FinovateAsia 2012 in Singapore. ClearMatch connects borrowers with lenders by allowing investors to bid at different interest rates on a single loan. This minimizes data entry for the borrower while broadening the reach of investor portfolios.