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Post by easteregg on Dec 17, 2013 13:21:13 GMT
There are some P2P companies that have listed themselves on various crowdfunding platforms. Without dragging this down to a P2P vs crowdfunding argument, what do people think about these pitches and the valuations attached to them?
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bugs4me
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Post by bugs4me on Dec 27, 2013 10:46:13 GMT
There are some P2P companies that have listed themselves on various crowdfunding platforms. Without dragging this down to a P2P vs crowdfunding argument, what do people think about these pitches and the valuations attached to them? I was offered some shares in a P2P, probably along with several others that had registered with them, for *% of the shares at £**. The valuation they were placing on themselves was in the region of £3M. Now maybe that would be a relevant valuation for a company that had a track record but these guys hadn't been going for 12 months so no filed accounts, scant details and really it was all with a bit of luck and a following wind etc. Reminded me of some of the valuations that people thought their ideas were worth on the Dragons Den programme.
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Post by westonkevRS on Dec 27, 2013 15:33:26 GMT
My laughable moment came the other day watching on an AltFinance youtube channel. The "CEO and Founder" of a p2p "transparent bank" was being interviewed for 20mins, and then at the end the interviewer annou ced he was also launching a p2p lending company. It was simply ridiculous. Any my biased opinion is that any new starter that doesn't have significant backing and professionals will sink.
Other than RateSetter, Zopa and FC there haven't been many serious new p2p firms. I like Assetz Capital, and locally folk2folk. I'm not sure I'd trust my money with any others....
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Post by easteregg on Jan 2, 2014 12:38:20 GMT
My laughable moment came the other day watching on an AltFinance youtube channel. The "CEO and Founder" of a p2p "transparent bank" was being interviewed for 20mins, and then at the end the interviewer annou ced he was also launching a p2p lending company. It was simply ridiculous. Any my biased opinion is that any new starter that doesn't have significant backing and professionals will sink. Other than RateSetter, Zopa and FC there haven't been many serious new p2p firms. I like Assetz Capital, and locally folk2folk. I'm not sure I'd trust my money with any others.... Hopefully regulation will filter some of these out, and time will certainly filter out any others. The serious ones, like those you mention and a few others, will continue to grow, whereas others will run out of steam. There will be some with good ideas, such as Squirrl.com, which don't survive, but I can't see the P2P market supporting 25+ companies in the long run.
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bugs4me
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Post by bugs4me on Jan 2, 2014 12:44:23 GMT
My laughable moment came the other day watching on an AltFinance youtube channel. The "CEO and Founder" of a p2p "transparent bank" was being interviewed for 20mins, and then at the end the interviewer annou ced he was also launching a p2p lending company. It was simply ridiculous. Any my biased opinion is that any new starter that doesn't have significant backing and professionals will sink. Other than RateSetter, Zopa and FC there haven't been many serious new p2p firms. I like Assetz Capital, and locally folk2folk. I'm not sure I'd trust my money with any others.... Hopefully regulation will filter some of these out, and time will certainly filter out any others. The serious ones, like those you mention and a few others, will continue to grow, whereas others will run out of steam. There will be some with good ideas, such as Squirrl.com, which don't survive, but I can't see the P2P market supporting 25+ companies in the long run. Yes regulation (for all it's faults) will kill off a few as the first thing prospective lenders/investors will look for will be the FCA logo on the web site. Also those without some sort of 'provision fund' and/or 'asset guarantee' may go quiet. I've done a bit of background checking on some of the newer P2P's and the individuals behind them - well say no more. They may squeeze through the 'fit & proper' person test at the FCA but will undoubtedly fall foul of the TCF IMO.
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Post by jevans4949 on Jan 2, 2014 13:16:15 GMT
Regarding the number of companies, most of the currently significant ones do have different business propositions - unsecured personal loans, secured business loans, pawnbroking, for example; whether or not they have bad debt compensation schemes; sizes of loan parts; who sets interest rates; "ownership" of the loan parts.
Some of these will fall by the wayside because the business model doesn't work, or doesn't appeal to the lender or the borrower, some because of poor management or poor marketing. Also inevitably some will be taken over.
We will probably end up with most of the business being with a few big fish, but there will probably always be room for niche lenders - such as yacht pawnbrokers. In fact, one could probably devise a "p2p" backend (whether true p2p or not) for any business involved in raising or providing finance - e.g., The House Crowd.
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