The investment has been sourced from Equitable Bank, alongside Hedgewood, Power Financial Corporation and a number of other investors. The money will serve as operating and loan capital for the Borrowell platform. It’s as yet unclear whether any part of the $6.4m has been invested in the equity of the company. Borrowell last raised money in December 2014 – a $5.4m round that also involved Equitable Bank. That particular round was reportedly comprised of a mixture of funding commitments and “seed funding”.
Borrowell’s management team is particularly excited by the involvement of Power Financial – a major global player in insurance and wealth management, with a market cap of a little under $22 billion, according to Bloomberg. Andrew Graham, Co-Founder and CEO of Borrowell, commented:
“We’re thrilled to partner with strategic investors whose expertise spans technology, marketplace lending and consumer finance, and understand that the future of banking is changing rapidly.”
The Canadian marketplace lending space appears to be slowly gathering momentum. Borrowell,Grouplend and FundThrough are making steady progress – with a number of balance sheet-based platforms, like Thinking Capital, also making headway. Both OnDeck and Avant branched out into Canada in 2015. It’s fair to say, however, that while the Canadian market boasts a lot of promise, the sector has yet to truly take off. Borrowell’s $500m of processed “loan applications” is indicative of that fact. Will this latest $6.4m investment round help the platform to keep pace with the weight of borrower demand?
Andrew Moor, President and CEO of Equitable Bank, weighed in:
“We’re pleased with the traction Borrowell has gained in the Canadian market in such a short time. Canadians are embracing the benefits of better online options like Borrowell and our own EQ Bank.”
