Peer-to-peer mortgage provider LendingHome closes $70m Series C round

Peer-to-peer mortgage provider LendingHome has raised $70 million in a Series C round led by Chinese social networking company Renren.

Renren has already invested hundreds of millions of dollars in fintech startups such as student loans company SocialFinance Inc and Fundrise LLC, which handles equity investments in commercial real estate.

The Series C round also involved earlier backers Colony Capital, Cowboy Ventures, First Round Capital, Foundation Capital, Ribbit Capital and SAB Capital. LendingHome has now raised $109.3 million in total.

San Franscisco-based LendingHome provides short-term bridge loans for homeowners looking to quickly flip a property, and mortgages for landlords who own and rent out 10 or fewer single-family residences. The company originated more than $100 million in mortgages over the last year.

The company uses multiple data sources to assess the borrower’s likelihood to repay a loan, as well as the real value of the property. For example, LendingHome reviews transactional data from a bank statement using Intuit Connect, co-founders Matt Humphrey and James Herbert told the Wall Street Journal.

Hedge funds, family offices or large financial services firms, who would not usually provide capital in this asset class, can access aggregated deals on LendingHome’s platform, which have already been deemed reliable and creditworthy.

Next, the company plans to expand to allow accredited individual investors onto its platform.

LendingHome’s recent rounds follows a spate of other deals from tech-forward funding providers in the real estate market. AssetAvenue, RealtyShares and PatchofLand have also recently raised venture round to make it easier for real-estate developers and property owners to attain financing quickly online.

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