Prosper and OnDeck Partner Up

Prosper Marketplace and OnDeck joined through a strategic partnership aimed at helping both people and businesses find the loan that best meets their needs.

Prosper will refer customers it cannot serve to OnDeck and OnDeck will refer customers to Prosper. Each company will pay a referral fee to the other for customers received.

Noah Breslow, CEO of OnDeck, said that he “felt these efforts were complementary” as both platforms serve different kinds of customers. OnDeck focuses on small business loans whereas Prosper facilitates consumer loans.

Aaron Vermut, CEO of Prosper Marketplace, commented:

"This partnership gives Prosper Marketplace's customers access to more options for credit now and creates a great platform for the future. Prosper Marketplace is focused on delivering access to a consumer-friendly personal loan product that offers people fair, competitive rates. We are excited to work with an industry leader like OnDeck to help our customers that are looking for loans for their small businesses."

Under the partnership Prosper and OnDeck will develop new solutions to address their customers’ needs that expand upon their current referral arrangement.

Noah Breslow, CEO at OnDeck, added:

"OnDeck is 100% focused on helping small businesses meet their capital needs. Our partnership with Prosper Marketplace, a like-minded technology innovator, will enable us to offer more small businesses a seamless experience to meet their financing needs."

Prosper recently crossed $3 billion mark in personal loans originated through its platform, and has grown more than 350% over the past year as online marketplaces for credit gain mainstream awareness and acceptance. OnDeck has loaned over $2 billion to small businesses across 700 industries in all 50 US states and Canada.

American Banker reported that Breslow said his company [OnDeck] and Prosper anticipate "getting more and more integrated," though no merger's in the works. Although Prosper’s biggest rival Lending Club has moved into business loans and this move has been boosted by partnerships with Google and Alibaba. It is difficult to speculate over how a partnership between two of the largest market lending platforms in the US will develop but it is certainly one that we will be watching closely.