PLR Interviews Fynanz CEO Chirag Chaman
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Tom interviewed Chirag Chaman who is the CEO of the soon to be released new P2P lending site Fynanz which will focus on student loans. It seems like a small niche since there are already governemnt backed loans in this category and the rates are rather reasonable at banks. However, with the price of tuition continually out pacing inflation and standard loan sizes, this may be a niche worth pursuing.
I found the answer to the following question interesting as well as the fact that Fynanz’s website currently links to both Prosper and Lending Club.
How will Fynanz be different than Prosper, LendingClub and other P2P lending sites?
Do we need to be different? I see us all as retail stores, with a slight difference in what we have on our shelves. Our focus is just student loans — which is a very different loan product. Our borrowers are students looking to pay their education expenses. If they wanted money to pay-off their credit card or to take a spring-break trip, we just might send them Prosper’s way…
Chirag Chaman may win the congeniality award, but congeniality will not necessarily keep a website open for business. NetBanker while examining the fee changes at Prosper showed just how little Prosper is making on each loan. I am not certain how many players will be left in the market in a few years. For now with so may P2P lending sites in the US: Prosper, Lending Club, Zopa, Virgin Money and Globe Funder, Loanio, and Fynanz are due to open their sites for business shortly. Seven competitors in a market space that, while growing in loan volume, is possibly not growing fast enough to support that many competitors.
The Freakanomics blog states P2P lending will be a $1 billion market by 2010. I have doubts about that figure, but it could be buoyed by the fact that Virgin is lending large sums in secured loans. Prosper originated $77 million in 2007. It will take 13 times that number to reach $1 billion. But despite my doubts, I feel the sector has promise or else I would not have started this blog… Good luck to all!
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It was a fun interview to do. It sounds like they have a great idea and a great team.
It was a good interview. Certainly interesting to read.
[…] Prosper Lending Review interviewed the Fynanz CEO. (That one was interesting enough that I already blogged about it.) Rate Ladder updated the vintage […]