The Best P2P Lending Sites for your Business Loan
Inspired by our guide to P2P borrowing (which you can read here) we decided to do a bit of research to find out what are the best P2P lending sites out there. These sites act as an intermediary between borrowers and lenders, underwriting but not financing a loan.
Here’s our guide to the options out there for your business, broken down by location for your convenience.
UK
Launched in 2010 and with £219m lent so far, London based Funding Circle was the first site to offer P2P loans to businesses in the UK. Loans range from £5k to £1m with terms of up to 5 years and funding within 1 week, this site has been used by 20,000 businesses and is backed by the British Business Bank.
Criteria:
- You must be trading (actively) for 2+ years
- Maintain a UK bank or building society account
- Be a limited company, LLP, Partnership or Sole Trader
Thin Cats was started in Ashby, England, in 2011 and has lent £200m to small businesses in the time since. They offer loans from £100k to £5m and terms of up to 5 years. Their aim is to “link experienced investors with established business borrowers to provide a serious alternative to high street banks.”
Criteria:
- You must be trading for 2+ years
- Be based in the UK
- Be willing to provide security and possibly a personal guarantee
Edinburgh based Lending Crowd were started in 2014 and has lent £7.4m to date. Loan amounts range from £5k to £250k and terms of up to 5 years are available. Rates start at 5.95% and you could have funds in your account within 30 days. Lending Crowd are supported by the Scottish Investment Bank.
Criteria:
- You must be trading for 2+ years
- Have an annual turnover of approx. £100k
- Be a limited company, LLP, Partnership or Sole Trader
Australia
Sydney based Thin Cats Australia is an offshoot of Thin Cats UK. They have been operating in Australia since 2014 and offer loans from $100k to $2m and terms of up to 5 years. Thin Cats Australia ideally want to work with “small to medium sized businesses that require loans for growth.”
Criteria:
- You must provide 6 months of bank statements
- Provide business plan and financial statements
- Be a corporate entity
RateSetter is another Australian business that started life in the UK and business finance is just one of the services they offer to the Australian market. Business loans of up to $150k are available with terms of up to 5 years and you could see the funds in your account in as little as 1 day! So far RateSetter has facilitated $72m worth of loans.
Criteria:
- You must be trading for 2+ years
- Have a good credit history
- Be able to demonstrate at least $10,000 worth of monthly sales
MarketLend offers peer 2 peer lending with added security as the platform also invests in a percentage of every loan. As Founder Leo Tyndall explains “to mitigate risk we put our money first in line if there is any loss, as they say ‘we have skin in the game’.” MarketLend offers business asset and equipment loans of up to $1m and terms of up to 6 years.
Criteria:
- You must be a limited liability company or a limited liability partnership
- Be willing to undergo a credit and financial check
US
Business loan rates from San Francisco based Lending Club start at 5.9% and loans range from $1,000 to $300,000 with terms of up to 5 years. So far Lending Club have funded $20 billion worth of loans and have grown to become the world’s largest online credit marketplace.
Criteria:
- You must be trading for 2+ years
- Have at least $75k in annual sales
- Have fair or better personal credit
StreetShares is peer 2 peer lending with a twist, they put your loan application in front of people with similar backgrounds for an ‘affinity based’ lending scheme and offer smaller loan amounts than competitors. Businesses can borrow amounts from $2,000 to $100,000 with terms of up to 3 years and these loans are ideally suited to businesses looking for working capital. One caveat with this platform is that StreetShares only offers loans of up to 20% of your annual turnover.
Criteria:
- You must be in business for at least 1 year
- Pull in revenue of at least $25,000 per year
Again, this P2P lender started out in the UK but broke into the US market in October 2013. They offer loans from $25k to $500k to their US customers and terms of up to 5 years and borrowers could have their money in 10 days.
Criteria (for loans under $300k, for more than this you must provide additional information):
- You must provide 2 years (most recent) business tax returns
- Provide 1 year (most recent) personal tax return (including W-2s)
- Provide 6 months (most recent) business bank statements
So there we have it, your P2P options. It is a good idea to remember that wherever you choose to go for a P2P loan while it is usually faster and easier than going for a bank loan there are still criteria that need to be met in order to even be considered.
Looking to forecast when you’ll need an injection of cash? Check out Float Cash Flow Forecasting.
Further Reading
- Alternative finance options for business
- The small business funding landscape is changing
- Best invoice financing providers for your business
- Crowdfunding options for business
- How to approach your bank for funding
