People with knowledge of the deal said the transaction values the platform at $2.3 billion. That valuation puts LendingClub among the highest-priced private technology companies in the US.
LendingClub’s valuation has now climbed by 48% since May of this year, when Google Inc. led a $125 million secondary purchase. The company was then valued at $1.55 billion.
DST Global, founded by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, has also invested in Facebook Inc., Twitter, Zynga Inc., Groupon Inc. and Airbnb.
The news of this investment comes amongst CEO Renaud Laplanche’s talk of an IPO in 2014. “There’s an expectation we’ll go public next year, and we feel we have a lot of visibility into the business.”
Laplanche also said that the share sale consisted entirely of stock purchased from early backers.
