Harmoney gets $200 mln funding line from investor P2P Global

Harmoney gets $200 mln funding line from shareholder P2P Global

By Paul McBeth

Sept. 25 (BusinessDesk) - Harmoney Corp, which operates an online peer-to-peer financial services platform, has secured a $200 million funding line from investor P2P Global Investments, which also increased its stake in the Auckland-based firm.

The deal involves debt and equity, and will see P2P Global Investments "purchase loans from the Harmoney marketplace up to $200 million over the next three years across both the New Zealand and Australian markets," the company said in a statement. Harmoney facilitated $100 million of loans in its first year of operation.

P2P Global Investments also increased its holding in Harmoney, it said, without immediately providing details of shareholding changes. P2P Global's investment valued the lender at $100 million, up from a $55 million valuation in January, it said.

"P2PGI has been an institutional investor on the Harmoney marketplace since early 2015," founder and chief executive Neil Roberts said. "Their equity investment in the company aligns the two companies even closer."

In January, Trade Me Group, New Zealand's biggest online auction site, paid $7.7 million for a 15 percent stake as part of the peer-to-peer lender's $10 million capital-raising, joining Heartland New Zealand, the listed bank, which took a 10 percent stake last September, for an undisclosed sum.

UK-based P2P Global, managed by Marshall Wace subsidiary Eaglewood Europe, had owned 0.3 percent of Harmoney, according to Companies Office filings. It has also established deals with US platforms Lending Club, Upstart, and Prosper, and UK peer-to-peer lenders Funding Circle, Zopa, and RateSetter.

In August, P2P Global Investments said its investment manager entered into a deal with Harmoney in the first half of the year, calling it "a promising New Zealand based platform."

Harmoney launched in September 2014 with $100 million of committed lending capital from institutions including Blue Elephant Capital Management in New York and Heartland Bank.

(BusinessDesk)

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