Australian P2P lender SocietyOne completes $15m equity raise

Australian peer-to-peer lender SocietyOne has completed a $15m (£11.6m) equity raise.

The raising of the equity comes as SocietyOne establishes a warehouse funding -an institutional debt instrument-facility.

The funding has been raised by existing SocietyOne investors, the company said.

Current backers of SocietyOne include News Corp Australia, Seven West Media, Consolidated Press Holdings, Reinventure Fund, and a number of credit unions and mutual banks.

SocietyOne did not specify which of its backers supported the equity raise.

The funds will be used to support the warehouse, as well as used to launch new products and services this year, SocietyOne said.

SocietyOne said establishing the warehouse is "an important strategic step", which it says would help provide customers with a better deal on their finances.

“The peer-to-peer industry has itself undergone significant transformation over the past seven years," said CEO Mark Jones.

“The facility shores up SocietyOne’s ability to grow in 2020, and continue to provide a great experience and better value for our customers now, and for many years to follow,” added Jones.

SocietyOne claims to be Australia's first-ever consumer P2P lender, when it set up in 2012.

The lender said it has provided more than $700m (£542m) in total lending and has helped more than 30,000 borrowers. 

SocietyOne provides unsecured personal loans to consumers of between$5,000 (£3,871) to $50,000 (£38,719) for between two and five years.