Australasia’s largest peer-to-peer lending marketplace Harmoney has announced that Jon Barlow, Founder of Eaglewood Capital Management, and Phin Upham, principal at Thiel Capital, have joined its Advisory Board.
Neil Roberts,Harmoney Founder and Joint CEO, feels delighted to have the expertise of Mr Barlow and Mr Upham within the company, not only as members of the advisory board, but also as shareholders.
He commented on the event:
“We are thrilled to welcome Jon and Phin to the Harmoney Advisory Board, and look forward to their contributions which will be invaluable in helping Harmoney build on its impressive first year achievements.”
According to Roberts, these two new members will confer upon the company greater global know-how in both capital markets strategy and business growth.
He added:
“Jon and Phin will extend Harmoney’s access to large capital pools enabling Harmoney to pursue ambitious growth targets and service the strong and growing demand for higher investment returns and risk-priced borrowing.”
As mentioned, Mr Barlow formerly served as founder and CEO of Eaglewood Capital Management, a leading asset management firm, specialised in online and marketplace lending investment strategies. Barlow was instrumental in coordinating the first ever securitisation of peer-to-peer loans, having packaged up a collection of unsecured consumer loans (originated by LendingClub) in a $53 million transaction.
Barlow weighed in:
"New Zealand/Australia has the potential to be one of the most profitable P2P markets in the world, and Harmoney has established itself as the leader in that market.”
Phin Upham is a principal at Thiel Capital, an investment firm that is well known for co-founding PayPal and Palantir, and for being an early backer of Facebook. Mr Upham’s expertise in technology and innovation will be particularly helpful for Harmoney, as the company is focusing on making larger use of emerging technology, especially in mobile.
After having crossed the $100m mark in September, just 12 months after having launched, this news represents another great achievement not only for Harmoney, but also for the whole of New Zealand’s nascent peer-to-peer lending sector.
