The latest market stats for the sector by AltFinanceNews indicate that the 9 major platforms (including crowdfunding outfit Crowdcube) have hit total transactions of £936m, with an overall recorded month on month growth rate of 6%.  

This growth rate was lower than the equivalent numbers for the last month (8.5%) and indicates either a seasonal slowdown or a tougher marketing environment. Our hunch is that core markets are becoming more competitive and many AltFinance platforms might struggle to keep up their high recent monthly growth rates as they move into 2014!

All data has been based on publicly available statistics from each platform. From January 1st 2014 we’ll be extending the data benchmarks to include default information and returns data.

Key insights from our analysis include:

• Current total transactions totalled £936m to date
• Growth across initial six platforms averaged 6% last month, down from 8.5% last month
• Growth rates in transactions slowed across the board except for Funding Circle, which increased its growth rate from 7.9% to 8%
• The sharpest deceleration in growth rates belonged to Thincats, Rebuildingsociety, Ratesetter and Zopa
• At current average growth rates the sector will push past £1 billion in early February
• At current average growth rates the sector will hit £1.73 billion by December 1st 2014

AltFinance Sector Summary Stats (all figures in £):