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Bond Street Marketplace Grabs $110M

2015-06-18
NEW YORK, NY, Bond Street Marketplace, which launched a year and a half ago, has raised $110 million in equity and debt financing.
According to Crain's New York Business site, Bond Street Marketplace, which launched a year and a half ago, has raised $110 million in equity and debt financing.

The Manhattan-based company, which automates the loan approval process by tapping into a range of online client data, announced the funding deal on Thursday. It was led by Spark Capital and the investment bank Jefferies, and will be used to expand Bond Street's lending capacity and development of new technology.

CEO and co-founder David Haber said he expects to grow the Bond Street's eight-person team to 25 within the next twelve months.

The company is one of a host of new, alternative, online funding sources that by next year could include a division of Goldman Sachs, which plans to open an online consumer lending division. The sector has also gotten a boost from several successful IPOs, including that of OnDeck Capital in December, though OnDeck's stock is now down more than 50% since it went public.

Unlike OnDeck and Kabbage, which offer short-term loans to small businesses at interest rates north of 40%, Bond Street specializes in term loans of up to three years that carry interest rates ranging from 6% to the high teens. The loans' average interest rate is 11%, according to Mr. Haber. The company targets businesses that either fall just outside the strict requirements set by banks, or need a quicker approval process and don't mind paying rates that are slightly higher than a bank's for the faster service.

'There is a very large gap between the banks and the [high-interest] funding alternatives,' said Mr. Haber, who is a former associate at Spark Capital. 'We were seeing profitable, high-quality companies that should never have to borrow at 40%.'

The company's clients include Joe Coffee, Cafe Grumpy and the marketing company Gin Lane.

Mr. Haber said the goal for Bond Street is to further differentiate itself from banks by offering data to small companies that can help them with their business, and to continue shaving time off the lending and underwriting processes.
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