Peter Thomson and Thomvest Make Strategic Investments in Lending Club

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Lending Club, (http://www.lendingclub.com), the leading platform for investing in and obtaining personal loans, today announced that Peter J. Thomson has become a cornerstone investor in the Conservative Consumer Credit Fund. LC Advisors, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lending Club, serves as the General Partner of the Fund. The Fund invests in the two highest grades of 36-month consumer loans originated through the Lending Club platform. In addition, Thomvest, Mr. Thomson's venture fund, has taken an equity interest in Lending Club alongside Union Square Ventures.

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"Our philosophy is to embrace and promote innovation," said Mr. Thomson, chairman of Thomvest and director of Thomson Reuters Corporation. "We believe Lending Club is a remarkable financial innovation: it creates a more direct path between sources of capital and the consumers who need that capital at a given point in time, which helps lower interest rates for consumers and offer higher yield to investors. As we look to preserve and grow our capital with fixed-income investments, Lending Club's investment platform fits our needs ideally. Thomvest is also pleased to be able to participate in Lending Club's future growth as an equity investor."

"We are thrilled to welcome Peter Thomson and Thomvest as strategic partners," said Lending Club CEO Renaud Laplanche. "We have gotten to know each other during the several months of their due diligence process and it became clear that we share the same views concerning the role of technology and innovation in improving marketplace efficiency and transparency. These shared values, combined with Mr. Thomson's cornerstone investment on our platform, make Mr. Thomson and Thomvest our key strategic partners for the years to come."

Lending Club continues to experience unprecedented growth – over 100 percent year-over-year – including a record month in August with over $30 million in new investment capital added to the Lending Club platform. The company recently surpassed $350 million in total loans originated and is now originating over $23 million in prime consumer loans each month.

Focusing on prime and super-prime quality borrowers enables Lending Club's platform to have generated over a 9.5 percent Net Annualized Return as of September 1, 2011, while offering consumers interest rates well below traditional alternatives for similar borrowers.

About Lending Club

Lending Club brings together investors and prime borrowers, utilizing technology to reduce the cost of traditional lending in order to provide borrowers with better rates and investors with better returns. Founded in 2006 and based in San Francisco, CA, Lending Club has been recognized for its results and innovation by the Harvard Business Review and Dow Jones, was recently named a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer and featured in major publications, television and radio shows. More information is available at: http://www.lendingclub.com.

Additional information about Lending Club is available in the prospectus for Lending Club's notes, which can be obtained on Lending Club's website at https://www.lendingclub.com/info/prospectus.action.

About Peter Thomson

Peter J. Thomson is a Director of Thomson Reuters Corporation and Chairman of Thomvest. Mr. Thomson's enthusiasm for technology and its increasing impact on our lives led to an investment strategy over ten years ago of investing in early stage companies that were distinguished by the strength of their management teams, their degree of technical differentiation, and their ability to address large and growing markets. Prior to founding Thomvest, Mr. Thomson worked on three continents for subsidiaries of the Woodbridge Company of Toronto, during which he gained a broad range of operational and strategic experience. Mr. Thomson also currently serves as the Co-Chairman of the Woodbridge Company as well as a Director of Public Mobile Inc.

About Thomvest

Thomvest is a venture capital firm committed to the success of our entrepreneur partners. We primarily focus on investments in areas where we have deep expertise and experience, including software, technology-enabled services, and hardware businesses. The capital we invest is our own, enabling us to be more creative, flexible and patient than most venture investors. It takes time to build great companies and we're committed to supporting our entrepreneurs throughout their journey. That's why more than two-thirds of the companies that we have funded in the last decade have either gone public, been acquired, or continue to grow as independent businesses. To learn more about Thomvest, please visit www.thomvest.com.

Information in this press release is not an offer to sell securities or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of such jurisdiction.

SOURCE Lending Club