Major new executive-level changes and a big financing round have U.S. peer-to-peer lending pioneer Prosper starting off 2013 with a bang.

Stephan Vermut will be taking over as chief executive officer. The company will also separate the president and CEO roles, and appoint Aaron Vermut to the former position.

Both Stephan and Aaron, as well as new addition Ron Suber who will serve as Head of Global Institutional Sales, previously worked together at Merlin Securities, a brokerage firm acquired by Wells Fargo last summer. Stephan was founder and managing partner of the firm.

The funding comes courtesy of venture capital heavyweight Sequoia Capital. The VC firm led the $20 million round, along with all Prosper’s current crop of investors. More information on the P2P lender’s investors is here.

This latest round of funding brings the company’s total to $95 in venture capital raised.

Prosper has more than 1.5 million members and more than $400 million in funded loans.  The company demoed with Finovate as part of Finovate Startup 2009