SYDNEY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SocietyOne (http://www.societyone.com.au), Australia’s leading peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform, announced today that Mitchel Harad has joined the company as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Harad was the Vice President of Marketing of Lending Club, the world’s leading marketplace lender with headquarters in San Francisco, USA.
Leading Lending Club’s borrower marketing efforts over the past four years, Harad was key to growing quarterly loan volume more than 30-fold - from US$50 million when he joined the company to US$1.6 billion (AUD$2.2 billion). Lending Club completed the second largest initial public offering globally in 2014, and has a current market capitalisation of US$5.6 billion (AUD$7.6 billion).
“Mitch has an amazing track record and was a major contributor to Lending Club’s growth,” said Matt Symons, CEO and co-founder of SocietyOne. “We could not be more excited to have recruited Mitch from the world’s most successful marketplace lender as SocietyOne continues to thrive and accelerate its own growth.”
“SocietyOne has striking similarities to where Lending Club was when I joined them,” said Harad. “The company is already growing at a rapid pace and is well equipped with excellent management, technology and resources to scale to provide a better alternative to millions of consumers. I think the opportunity SocietyOne has in Australia is enormous and I’m thrilled to join their team”.
“As the pioneer of marketplace lending in Australia, SocietyOne is still a young company,” said Greg Symons, co-founder of SocietyOne. “Mitch brings a unique level of maturity and experience as CMO that will be instrumental in driving the business forward”.
Harad’s move to Australia to join the SocietyOne team also marks another important achievement for Sydney’s burgeoning fin-tech industry.
“When entrepreneurs like Mitch Harad move from San Francisco – the heart of the global financial technology movement – to Sydney, it’s a testament to the increasing popularity of Australia as an attractive destination for world-class talent” said Mr. Alex Scandurra, CEO of Sydney fin-tech hub Stone & Chalk.
“I’m extremely impressed by the excitement and energy around financial innovation I’m encountering in Australia,” commented Harad. “SocietyOne has a fantastic entrepreneurial culture that would be right at home in Silicon Valley.”
The announcement adds further to an exceptional year for SocietyOne, which closed a $25 million capital raising round in February with a consortium of top-tier Australian investors, represented by Consolidated Press Holdings, News Corp Australia and Australian Capital Equity. The investment marked a milestone for SocietyOne and its ability to scale the business so more credit-worthy Australians can get a better rate on their personal loan.
About SocietyOne
SocietyOne is Australia’s leading Peer-to-Peer technology platform where high credit quality borrowers connect directly with investors to get a better deal. The SocietyOne ClearMatchTM platform reduces the cost of originating and managing consumer loans enabling SocietyOne to share its operating cost advantage with both borrowers and investors. SocietyOne has been recognised as one of the top 50 Best Fintech Innovators (by AWI, KPMG Australia and the FSC) in the world and its unsecured personal loan as one of the Top 10 most Innovative Banking Products of the year in Australia. SocietyOne’s SmartLoan mobile app was awarded “Best of Show” at FinovateAsia in November 2012.