Marketplace lending technology and infrastructure solutions provider Orchard Platform has just raised $30 million in its Series B round of funding. The company intends to use the new stream of capital to expand upon its pre-existing tech platform.
This latest round of investment has led by Thrive Capital, a private equity and VC firm specializing in tech and media investment. Victory Park Capital, Thomvest Ventures, and Jon Winkelried, the former President and Chief Operating Officer of Goldman Sachs also joined in as new investors.
Previous investment firms Spark Capital, QED Investors, Conversion Capital, Nyca Partners, and Canaan partners also participated in the round, as well as private investors John Mach and Tom Glocer.
Orchard develops software for investors and originators in marketplace lending to more quickly recognize and act on emerging opportunities that leverages GDS technology to identify acceptable credit risk.
Co-founder and CEO Matt Burton first came up with the idea for the platform in his days as a consultant, during which he searched through small money lenders with the hopes that one of them would have a pre-existing system he could use to help track small loan portfolios. When he found that this wasn’t the case, he decided to fill that gap and come up with his own solution.
Speaking on the success of the company’s Series B, Burton says that “Our core business vision—of facilitating a faster and more fluid flow of capital through technology and access to data—has gained enormous traction. The market has responded and investors are committed to helping Orchard flourish. We’re excited to help continue shaping the future of credit.”
Orchard currently employs 42 workers, and since it was founded in 2013, has become the largest company in the marketplace lending analytics niche. It charges clients three basis points a month held against the amount invested or managed through the platform, and so far has been a resounding success. July’s numbers, for instance, show the company’s 59 clients earning approximately $227 million through Orchard managed loans. Last fall the startup expected its 2015 revenue to be $3 million.
It’s seen tremendous growth so far, and Burton has several ambitious goals in mind, including the creation of a secondary market just for online loans. Even with its initial string of victories, such ambitious goals are often difficult to obtain, and Burton has done his best to remain grounded. “It’s a very promising industry,” he says, “but today there’s just a lot of friction.”
Even with that realism, however, there’s a great deal of optimism for things to come.
