Peer-to-peer lender Harmoney raises NZ$200m, eyes Australia
New Zealand-based peer-to-peer lending platform Harmoney has completed an NZ$200 million funding round, led by P2P Global Investments.
Among other things, the funding will back a planned entry into the Australian market, where Harmoney has already set up a placeholder website.
Founder, shareholder and chief executive Neil Roberts said P2P Global had been an institutional investor on the Harmoney marketplace since early 2015.
P2P Global is a London-listed trust which makes investments in and on peer-to-peer lending marketplaces globally.
The agreement includes equity and debt, Harmoney said, with P2P Global also signing an agreement for NZ$200 million of lending capital for Harmoney's marketplace.
P2P Global will purchase loans from the Harmoney marketplace of up to NZ$200 million over the next three years across both the New Zealand and Australian markets.
Harmoney closed a series A round in January led by New Zealand auction website Trade Me. That valued Harmoney at NZ$55 million. The latest deal values the company at NZ$100 million.
"Their equity investment in the company aligns the two parties even closer," Roberts said. "P2P Global Investments is one of the world's largest dedicated P2P marketplace funds and we join an exclusive list of the world's leading platforms that P2PGI has selected to invest in."
Harmoney, which was the first licensed peer-to-peer lender in New Zealand, announced this month it had made NZ$100 million in loans in its first year of operations.
The platform is built extensively on AWS infrastructure and Salesforce cloud services. Harmoney is currently undertaking several technology migrations as it continues to develop its marketplace technology.