Zopa hits £3bn lending landmark
ZOPA, the world’s oldest peer-to-peer finance platform, has hit the £3bn lending milestone.
The consumer lender, which reopened to new investors last week, said that it now has more than 60,000 active investors and more than 300,000 borrowers.
It has now lent out more than £3bn since inception, Zopa said on its website on Wednesday, having lent more than £985m in the past 12 months.
Investors are lending on average £13,000 while the average loan amount is £6,000.
“Nearly 13 years ago we set out on a mission to make money simple and fair for UK consumers, and that purpose remains unchanged,” Jaidev Janardana, chief executive of Zopa, said.
“Today’s £3bn milestone reflects our success in providing better value financial products and a better experience to our customers, but our journey is only just beginning.
“As we move closer to launching our next generation bank, we look forward to expanding our customer-centric approach to even more people through new products and services, and making Zopa the best place for our customers’ money.”
Zopa is the second UK P2P platform to have lent out £3bn. Funding Circle hit this milestone in the UK during December.
It comes shortly after Zopa reopened to new investors, 10 months after launching a waiting list to cope with demand and prevent lending queues from increasing.
People who had signed up to the waiting list since then will now be able to invest in any of Zopa’s four investment products – Core, ISA Core, Plus, and ISA Plus – alongside the existing 60,000 investors on the platform.
A spokesperson said there were 26,000 people on the list who can now invest.
Anyone not on the waiting list already can still join and it should take around a month to get on the platform, Zopa said.
Existing customers are also being offered £50 to refer a friend to Zopa and will also receive a ‘fast pass’ which they can use to move them further up the queue.