P2P lender Zopa had a busy Q4. The company earned accolades at the AltFi and F5 Awards, unveiled a new look, announced a plan to launch a challenger bank, and partnered with Airbnb. And growth begets growth: today the company announced it has broken past the £2 billion ($2.5 billion USD) loan milestone. “We’re excited to be the first UK peer-to-peer lender to pass the 2 billion milestone,” Zopa CEO Jaidev Janardana said. “Over the last 12 years, we’re proud to say we’ve helped over a third of a million people get better interest rates for both borrowing and lending.”

Zopa loans help consumers make automobile purchases, pay for home improvements, or finance debt consolidation. UK residents over the age of 19 with an income of at least £12,000 a year are eligible to apply for loans ranging from £1,000 to £25,000 and terms from 1 to 5 years. Applying for loans takes only three minutes and will not affect the applicant’s credit score. Both individuals and businesses (as long as they are not lenders themselves) are allowed to lend money through Zopa for investment purposes. Lending capital is distributed across different loan terms (up to five years) and lenders receive monthly payments from borrowers. Annualized projected returns to lenders range from 3.1% to 6.3%, and the platform also provides a “Sell My Loan” feature that enables lenders to sell their loans to other lenders on the platform (1% fee may be required).

One of Finovate’s earliest alums, Zopa demonstrated its technology at FinovateSpring 2008. Founded in 2007 and headquartered in San Francisco, the company was recognized as Personal Loan Provider of the Year for the fourth year in a row at the Consumer Moneyfacts Awards in January. Zopa partnered with UK money management app, Pariti, to help millennial consumers better manage credit card debt last September, and the company’s executive chairman and co-founder, Giles Andrews, was named one of the 40 most exciting people in fintech in the United Kingdom by Business Insider. Zopa has raised more than $68 million in funding, and includes Augmentum Capital and Bessemer Venture Partners among its investors.

Joining the likes of U.K.-based Monzo, Atom, Starling, and Tandem, P2P lending company Zopa announced yesterday it has applied for a banking license. “We want to offer consumers even more choice, which is why, subject to regulatory approval, we have decided to launch a next-generation bank to complement our existing peer-to-peer products,” the bank said in a statement on its website.

Founded in 2005, Zopa, a pioneer in P2P lending, was the first to launch a P2P lending platform in 2007. This week the company announced it has applied to the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for its banking license, a process expected to take up to two years. The new bank will offer FSCS-protected deposit accounts to savers and overdraft alternatives to borrowers. Being structured as a bank will allow Zopa to “create new and innovative savings and borrowing products” that existing Zopa clients will be able to test and offer feedback to shape future offerings.

Note that Zopa’s bank will run alongside its current P2P lending model. It will not be integrated into its existing platform, which is something analysts have been predicting since the inception of P2P lending—the creation of a holistic, crowd-sourced entity that fits into a P2P lending platform.

Zopa, which has raised almost $70 million, reached profitability in September. In October, the company facilitated a record amount of loans with $93 million lent through its platform. Last month Zopa announced a partnership with Airbnb that incentivizes borrowers to earn money via the vacation rental platform to pay back their loans faster. In May, Zopa added a vehicle-refinancing product to its platform, ZopaCarReFi.

Zopa’s former CEO Doug Dolton debuted the P2P lending platform at FinovateSpring 2008 at Finovate’s very first show in the Bay Area. Zopa co-founder Giles Andrews is now CEO.