Prosper Marketplace Announces $70 Million Investment Round Led By Francisco Partners

Additional Investors Include Institutional Venture Partners and Phenomen Ventures

Following Record Month of $100 Million in Loan Originations through the Prosper platform, Capital will be used to Fuel Growth and Expansion

SAN FRANCISCO, May 5, 2014 -- Prosper Marketplace, Inc., a leading peer-to-peer lending company, today announced it has raised $70 million in additional funding to fuel the companys growth and expansion. The round was led by Francisco Partners, a leading global private equity firm focused exclusively on investments in technology and technology-enabled services businesses. David Golob from Francisco Partners will join the Prosper Marketplace Board of Directors. The funding round also includes investments from Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), one of the premier later-stage venture capital and growth equity firms, as well as Phenomen Ventures.

We are thrilled to welcome Francisco Partners, IVP, and Phenomen Ventures as equity investors in Prosper Marketplace, said Aaron Vermut, CEO, Prosper Marketplace. We have had an incredible year so far, and have grown monthly platform originations from $9 million in January 2013 to over $100 million in April. Last month Prosper crossed $1 billion in total loans originated on the platform, and Prosper plans to hit $2 billion in cumulative loans this year. Financially, Prosper Marketplace is in a very solid place and this capital will be used to expand the business, advance our technology, and hire the very best talent.

Over the past 15 months, Prosper has focused on improving its efficiencies and products through the use of cutting-edge technologies. This has helped to attract new borrowers and lenders at a rapid pace, with loan originations growing over 400% since last year and up 30% from last month. At the end of April, Prosper had 35% share of the online consumer peer-to-peer lending market place.

In a short period of time, Prosper Marketplace has become a leading player in the massive consumer lending market, which is ripe for disruption, said David Golob, a partner for Francisco Partners. We've been tremendously impressed with the team and what they have been able to accomplish in the last 15 months, and we are excited to work with them as they take the company forward.

We're very pleased to be partnering with Prosper Marketplace, which has firmly established itself as a leader in the rapidly growing peer-to-peer lending industry, said Sandy Miller, General Partner at IVP. IVP prides itself on working with a select group of rapidly growing later-stage technology companies and we are looking forward to working closely with the Prosper Marketplace management team on their next phase of growth.

Prosper Marketplace has an incredibly talented team, headed by Aaron Vermut, and has flawlessly executed its business objectives, said Igal Weinstein of Phenomen Ventures. We believe the company has a clear future of substantial growth in the addressable market and we are very happy to be partnering with the other investors in Prosper Marketplace.

About Prosper

Prosper Funding LLC ( Prosper ) owns a leading peer-to-peer financing platform to invest and borrow money (the platform). The Prosper platform connects people who want to invest money with people who want to borrow money. On the Prosper platform, borrowers list loan requests between $2,000 and $35,000, and individual and institutional lenders invest as little as $25 in each loan listing they select. Institutional investors can also elect to participate in the Whole Loan Program. Over the past six years, more than $1 billion in personal loans have originated through the Prosper platform. The unsecured personal loans are used by Prosper borrowers for a variety of purposes including paying down high interest rate debt and helping with small business funding. Learn more at www.prosper.com. Prosper Marketplace, Inc. is the parent company of Prosper Funding LLC.

About Francisco Partners

Francisco Partners is a global private equity firm which focuses on information technology. Since its launch over a decade ago, FP has raised approximately $7 billion and invested in more than 100 technology companies, making it one of the most active investors in the industry. The firm invests in transaction values ranging from $50 million to over $2 billion, where the firms deep sub-sector knowledge and operational expertise can help a company realize its full potential. In particular, this transaction highlights the strength of FP's growing financial technology franchise, which has included investments in companies such as Paymetric, Avangate, Hypercom, eFront, Allston Trading, City Index and GXS. For further information, please visit: www.franciscopartners.com.

About Institutional Venture Partners (IVP)

With $4 billion of committed capital, Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) is one of the premier later-stage venture capital and growth equity firms in the United States. Founded in 1980, IVP has invested in over 300 companies, 98 of which have gone public. IVP is one of the top-performing firms in the industry and has a 33-year IRR of 43.2%. IVP specializes in venture growth investments, industry rollups, founder liquidity transactions, and select public market investments. Since its inception, IVP investments include such notable companies as AppDynamics, ArcSight (HPQ), Buddy Media (CRM), ComScore (SCOR), Concur Technologies (CNQR), Dropbox, Fleetmatics (FLTX), HomeAway (AWAY), Juniper Networks (JNPR), Kayak (PCLN), LegalZoom, LifeLock (LOCK), Marketo (MKTO), MySQL (ORCL), Netflix (NFLX), ngmoco (DeNA), Polycom (PLCM), Pure Storage, RetailMeNot (SALE), Seagate (STX), Shazam, Snapchat, Supercell, Synchronoss (SNCR), Tivo (TIVO), Twitter (TWTR), and Zynga (ZNGA). For more information, visit http://ivp.com or follow IVP on Twitter: @ivp.

About Phenomen Ve

LINK:	http://www.ivp.com/news/press-release/prosper-marketplace-announces--7...
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