Renaud Laplanche, Mary Meeker, Jeffrey Taylor
San Francisco-based Lending Club, the leading platform for investing in and obtaining personal loans, recently announced that it has enabled more than $1 billion in personal loans.
“The platform has now reached a scale and stability that makes it even more attractive to borrowers and investors,” said Lending Club CEO Renaud Laplanche. “Larger commitments from a wider base of investors mean a faster funding process for qualified borrowers, and higher loan volumes mean more choices for investors and more efficient pricing overall.”
Mary Meeker
The announcement was made at a private event in the Bloomberg headquarters in San Francisco attended by industry leaders and investors. Among them was Mary Meeker, investment partner in digital for Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers.
Jennifer Schaeffer, Bryan Esterly – Allison Speer, Eleanor Prezant, Ching Huong
After Renaud Laplanche pointed out that Lending Club had generated positive cash flow for the preceding quarter, Mary Meeker took the stage and explained why KPCB placed a $15 million equity investment in the company earlier in the year. She explained that when you can find a big market, a good product, a good business proposition, rapid growth and a great team, it usually makes for a pretty good investment. And that’s what she found in Lending Club.
“One of the things that we think about when we make an investment is ‘What’s the big idea?’ And the big idea for this company is you want to have a big market. And an $11 trillion dollar consumer loan market, plus a $2 trillion dollar consumer credit card market that’s prime for disruption, qualifies as a big market. In fact, one of the largest ones,” she said.
“The second thing is a strong product. And Lending Club is clearly the leader in this space. It has earned that through a fair amount of time in creating a great product. It offers great returns for investors and also great rates for borrowers. It also has a very compelling business proposition — one of the best ones you could ever have. Both sides win. Borrowers win and lenders win.”
“And the third thing is very rapid growth. More than $1 billion in personal loans. It’s now issuing $200 million in loans per quarter, up from $400 million and $70 million one year ago. And the last thing is Renaud and the team have a great group of carefully chosen industry vets and also forward thinkers.”
Jeff Bogan, Tobias Jordan, William Brady
Meeker took the opportunity to discuss overall trends in the digital space “One of the things we are blown away by is that so many things are being re-imagined,” she said, singling out companies like Path, One Kings Lane, Flipboard, Paper by FiftyThree, and others. “My favorite app — the first app I go to every morning — is the Bloomberg app on my iPad.”
She sees personal borrowing and lending as one of the areas that is being re-imagined. “It wasn’t that long ago that you needed to go into a bank and possibly be rejected. Fill out a paper application. It took a fairly long amount of time. For retail investors, there wasn’t an ability to actually lend to these pretty compelling borrowers. Now, you can do things online 24/7 in your pajamas or whatever the case may be. And investors have certainly had the ability to get outsized returns on some very, very high quality loans.”
Mac McCall, Doug Gouraly, Laura Slezinger
Part of Lending Club’s success has been fueled by borrowers looking for lower rates. More than 72 percent of borrowers on the platform report using their personal loans to pay off existing credit card balances. And by focusing on high-credit-quality borrowers, Lending Club’s platform has generated 21 consecutive quarters of positive returns.
“We’re certainly happy so far,” Meeker said. “And hopefully we will continue to be.”
Howard Freedland, Annie Freedland, Renaud Laplanche, Alex Turkeltaub
Tags: Alex Turkeltaub, Annie Freedland, Bryan Esterly, Doug Gouraly, Howard Freedland, Jeff Bogan, Jeffrey Taylor, Jennifer Schaeffer, Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, KPCB, Laura Slezinger, Lending Club, Mac McCall, Mary Meeker, Renaud Laplanche, Tobias Jordan, William Brady
We’re delighted to see that the Alex Chases Salon, run by the renowned hairstylist Alex Chases, has recently moved into a larger space at Rosewood Sand Hill’s Sense spa.
Designer Cedric Charlier recently visited San Francisco from Paris, to present his Spring 2013 collection at Barneys.
With Sloan and Roger Barnett, Sabrina Buell and Yves Behar, Jean-Pierre Conte, and Alison and Mark Pincus, Gucci recently hosted a private cocktail party at the San Francisco store to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the loafer, and the new 1953 collection for men and women.
Catherine Kwong’s living room, inspired by Mick Jagger and Bianca Jagger, is one of the highlights of the 2013 San Francisco Decorator Showcase, taking place at 2800 Pacific Avenue.
Saks Fifth Avenue and San Francisco Ballet Auxiliary are presenting Zac Posen as this year’s guest designer at the 32nd San Francisco Ballet Auxiliary Fashion Show, benefiting San Francisco Ballet.
Michael S. Smith was recently honored at Hedge Gallery in San Francisco at a party hosted by Alison Pincus, Vanessa Getty and Allison Speer. His design work for a Palladian Villa in Malibu is being put up for auction at Christie’s in New York. Nicolas Berggruen, Princess Tatiana Galitzine, Dede Wilsey, and Sabrina Buell were among the guests.
Deepa Pakianathan and Phil Pemberton recently hosted a reception for the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in anticipation of its upcoming Gala on April 20, 2013, which pays tribute to legendary opera baritone and Conservatory Advisory Board member Thomas Hampson.
Conservatory mezzo-soprano Catherine Cook directs and stars in a program featuring special performances by Hampson with Conservatory students, faculty and guest artists. Teresa Medearis and Barbara Walkowski co-chair the event, with catering by McCall’s Catering and Events and decor by Blueprint Studios.
Tickets for this very special occasion can be purchased at www.sfcm.edu
UCSF Partners in Care recently held its 2013 kick-off membership event at Reed & Greenough. Membership co-Chairs Schuyler Hudak and Libby Leffler hosted the launch party and kicked off the well-attended evening with brief remarks, followed by UCSF Partners in Care President Katie Budge, who spoke about the services that the auxiliary organization provides to the hospital.
UCSF Partners in Care works with UCSF hospital staff to fund programs that provide comfort and well-being to patients and their families while visiting the UCSF medical center.
Guests enjoyed spirited greyhounds nicknamed “Doctor’s Orders,” and a “Members Only” wine special while noshing on sweet treats from Kara’s Cupakes, and savory sliders and arancini from Cedar Hill Kitchen and Smokehouse.
Please visit www.ucsfpartnersincare.org for more information about this important organization.
Renowned European designer Ms. Madeline Pauw recently made an appearance at a delightful luncheon at Saks Fifth Avenue in San Francisco, where her Spring 2013 collection was presented.
The Pauw collection is designed by Madeleine Pauw, daughter of the original founders. Pauw is known for its luxurious fabrics and soft touches of femininity while integrating just a splash of masculine undertones, but always keeping the fit and style in mind for the female physique. The company has been in business for over 50 years, and originally was created in the Netherlands where it currently has 29 stores.
You can purchase pieces from Pauw at Saks Fifth Avenue at 384 Post Street, San Francisco, or online at Saks Fifth Avenue
Neiman Marcus and Vanity Fair, with writer Amy Fine Collins, recently hosted a luncheon in celebration of Vanity Fair’s 2013 International Best Dressed List. Guests included some of the West Coast’s best dressed women, such as Vanessa Getty, Pamela Joyner, and Sobia Shaikh. It also provided an opportunity to meet Alan Morell, the new general manager for Neiman Marcus’s Union Square store, following the move of our beloved John Capizzi to Bergdorf Goodman in New York.
ModeWalk recently unveiled its newest service for their clients, a first-of-its-kind, by-appointment showroom in San Francisco called Boudoir, located on the 7th Floor of 391 Sutter Street in Union Square.
Betty Lin, the chic Presidio Heights boutique, recently celebrated the launch of the new Maiyet collection with a party hosted by Alexis Traina, Alison Pincus, Nina Stanford, and Seth Miller.
HBO recently presented the premiere of Game of Thrones Season 3 with a VIP screening at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, attended by cast and creators, and VIP guests.
After the screening there was an on-stage discussion with Executive Producers D.B. Weiss, David Benioff and Co-Executive Producer George R.R. Martin, moderated by Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg, Co-Executive Editor’s at All Things D.
The Mid Winter Gala for 2013 honored the exhibit, “Girl with a Pearl Earring: Dutch Paintings from the Mauritshuis” with a chic winter wonderland that raised over $400k. Marissa Mayer, Jonathan Ive, Alison Pincus, Vanessa Getty, Dick Costolo, Stephan Jenkins, Connie Nielsen, Lori Levine, Evgenia Peretz, Jeremy Stoppelman, Trevor Traina, Allison Speer and Kathryn Lasater were among the 380 who attended.
Stephanie Phair, the managing director of Outnet.com, recently visited from London to host a luncheon previewing Oscar de la Renta’s new limited edition collection designed exclusively for The Outnet.
The Italian artist, Paolo Troilo, recently debuted his first U.S. exhibit at Coup d’Etat, the most exceptional designer space in San Francisco.
Sponsored by Testa Vineyards, the event brought together San Francisco tastemakers such as Jack Calhoun, Stephen Brady, Gary Friedman, Joy Bianchi, Anna Weinberg, Ken Fulk, and Jamie Finegold, among others.
The exhibit will run at Coup d’Etat until May 2013.
Visit Coup d’Etat at 111 Rhode Island, or online at coupdetatsf.com
Larkin Street Youth Services’ eleventh annual fund-raising gala benefit, Paving the Way, hosted over nearly 400 community leaders and philanthropists at the Four Seasons Hotel San Francisco on March 8, 2013. Hosted by special guests, Mark Buell, Chair of the America’s Cup Organizing Committee and Jimmy Spithill, Skipper and Helmsman for ORACLE Team USA, the benefit event raised over $725,000 in support of Larkin Street’s programs for homeless, runaway and at-risk youth in San Francisco. Over eighty percent of all funds raised by Larkin Street go directly to supporting the organization’s programs.
