Harmoney lands $200m for Aussie launch

Peer-to-peer lender Harmoney has secured $200 million in funding to help it launch in Australia.

The company was the first to get a licence for peer-to-peer (P2P) lending in New Zealand, allowing it to operate an online personal loan marketplace where people who want to borrow can do so from people who want to lend. Growth has been rapid, and before its first anniversary earlier this month, it had made more than $100m worth of loans.

It secured funding from Heartland Bank and Trade Me for its New Zealand business, but the Australian launch, which is scheduled for November, required more.

Harmoney says its latest funding round has secured $200m from experienced international peer-topeer funder P2P Global Investments, which is managed by Eaglewood Europe, a subsidiary of alternative asset manager Marshall Wace.

Harmoney says P2P Global will take a stake in the business and also provide $200m of lending capital.

Under that agreement, P2P Global, a fund incorporated in the United Kingdom with more than $2 billion worth of investments, will purchase loans from the Harmoney marketplace of up to $200m over the next three years across the New Zealand and Australian markets.

Harmoney founder and chief executive Neil Roberts said: ‘‘We are delighted to have P2PGI as a key shareholder.

‘‘P2PGI has been an institutional investor on the Harmoney marketplace since early 2015. Their equity investment in the company aligns the two parties even closer.

‘‘P2PGI 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.’’

The deal is important for Harmoney. Its experience in New Zealand shows that while there is a big appetite from ordinary people to borrow money, retail investors have been slower to cotton on to the opportunity of higher-than-bank returns on their money.