Peer-to-peer lending and marketplace lending platform Peerform might be looking to expand its product offerings to also include secured auto loans in the next 18 months, Chief Executive Mikael Rapaport told Auto Finance News.
“Today, we do unsecured consumer loans, but the tech that we have developed in-house allows us to easily launch other products,” he said. “It’s a slow process for any new entrants, but for Peerform, with all the investment that we put into technology and processes, we can can easily expand our product offering to a new asset class.”
Currently, the platform offers unsecured loans as high as $25,000, and asks customers to categorize the purpose of the loan; car financing is one of seven categories.
“We don’t verify this, but I’d say about 5% to 10% of our customers indicate car financing,” Rapaport said. The application process takes about 20 seconds, and the platform approves 15% to 20% of overall customers, he explained.
The New York-based startup, launched in 2012, operates in the near-prime space — the mid-600 credit score range — and currently receives about 1,000 applications a month.
