Student Refinancer Expands Operations

CommonBond - the peer-to-peer student loan refinancer - is expanding its services from 200 universities to over 2000. David Klein – CEO and Co-Founder – remarked on the announcement:

“I personally faced the painful process of taking out student loans to fund my business school degree at Wharton, and have been fixated on creating a better experience for those with student debt ever since.”

“Since the very beginning, we’ve wanted to have the broadest impact possible to lessen the burden of student loans, and with this expansion, I am proud to say that we’re now able to bring the CommonBond experience to many more borrowers nationwide.”

The company, which is trying to access the $1.2 trillion worth of outstanding student loan debt in the US, is also launching its Parent PLUS loan refinancing program. The program allows parents who have taken out loans to help finance their children through university to refinance and lower their interest rate.

On this development, Mr Klein commented:

“While student loan debt weighs heavily on millennials, we also saw a big need in the market to provide a new option for parents who carry student debt on behalf of their children.”

“Just as graduates can save over $14,000 by refinancing their student loans through CommonBond, parents can also save a substantial amount by refinancing their Parent PLUS loans with us.”

Earlier this month, CommonBond announced a $35M Series B fundraise. At the time, CommonBond said the money would be put towards increasing headcount and scaling nationally and it seems that plan is coming to fruition. On the back of today’s news, CommonBond has indicated that it expects to originate over $500M by the end of the year, and to pass the $1bn mark in 2016.

The alternative student re-financing industry is an exciting one, and a sector that AltFi has recently taken an in-depth look at. SoFi has grabbed many a headline of late, having recently raised a whopping $1bn at a valuation of $4bn, and having also topped the $4bn mark in cumulative lending. But CommonBond has had its fair share of headlines too, and now appears to be pulling out all the stops to close the gap.