Prosper Membership Leaps to 200,000 and Funded Loans Top $40 Million

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Prosper (www.prosper.com), America’s first people-to-people lending marketplace, today announced that over the course of the last four months its membership and funded loans have doubled. As a result, Prosper’s membership base now consists of more than 200,000 individuals with over $40 million in loans funded on the marketplace.

“The tremendous growth we’ve experienced is a promising indicator of America’s desire to participate in person-to-person lending and a market that has traditionally been walled off to individuals”

“The tremendous growth we’ve experienced is a promising indicator of America’s desire to participate in person-to-person lending and a market that has traditionally been walled off to individuals,” said Chris Larsen, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Prosper. “We’re also inspired by the high-level of engagement among Prosper community members. Nearly a quarter-million posts have been made on Prosper’s discussion forum, and the number of popular third-party applications, websites and forums dedicated to Prosper continues to grow at a rapid pace.”

To find out about other new developments at Prosper, visit www.prosper.com and click on the “What’s New” tab. To participate in Prosper’s discussion forum, click here: www.prosper.com/public/help/discussion_forums.aspx. To explore some of the third-party websites and applications dedicated to Prosper, click here: www.prosper.com/public/tools/3rdParty.aspx.

About Prosper

Prosper (www.prosper.com), America's first people-to-people lending marketplace, was created to make consumer lending more financially and socially rewarding for everyone. Prosper’s membership consists of over 200,000 people from across the country. Since launching in February 2006, over $40 million in loans have been funded in the marketplace.

The way Prosper works is intuitive to people who have used eBay. Instead of listing and bidding on items, people list and bid on loans using Prosper's online auction platform. People who want to lend on Prosper set the minimum interest rate they are willing to earn and bid in increments of $50 to $25,000 on loan listings they select. In addition to criteria commonly used by institutional lenders, such as credit scores and histories, people who lend can consider borrowers' personal stories and group affiliations. Groups on Prosper are critical to bringing people together for the common goal of borrowing at better rates. People who want to borrow on Prosper create loan listings for up to $25,000 and set the maximum rate they are willing to pay a lender. Then the auction begins as people who lend bid down the interest rate. Once the auction ends, Prosper takes the bids with the lowest rates and combines them into one simple loan to the borrower. Prosper handles all on-going loan administration tasks including loan repayment and collections on behalf of the matched borrowers and lenders.

Prosper was co-founded by Chris Larsen, co-founder of E-LOAN, and John Witchel, technology entrepreneur. Backed by Accel Partners, Benchmark Capital, Fidelity Ventures, and Omidyar Network, Prosper has raised approximately $20 million. Prosper's marketplace platform is patent pending.