Union Square Leads Lending Club Round

San Francisco-based Lending Club, which operates an online platform where users can invest in or obtain personal loans, said today that it has itself obtained $25 million in new financing. Union Square Ventures of New York led the round, which was joined by existing investors Morgenthaler Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, and Canaan Partners. Union Square has taken an observer seat on the board of the four-year-old startup, which has now raised some $77 million all told. “We believe Lending Club will surpass the largest US banks in the next decade both in size and performance because it leverages the power of the network to grow faster, get smarter and become increasingly more efficient over time,” Union Square Ventures managing partner Fred Wilson said in a statement.

Author: Wade Roush

Between 2007 and 2014, I was a staff editor for Xconomy in Boston and San Francisco. Since 2008 I've been writing a weekly opinion/review column called VOX: The Voice of Xperience. (From 2008 to 2013 the column was known as World Wide Wade.) I've been writing about science and technology professionally since 1994. Before joining Xconomy in 2007, I was a staff member at MIT’s Technology Review from 2001 to 2006, serving as senior editor, San Francisco bureau chief, and executive editor of TechnologyReview.com. Before that, I was the Boston bureau reporter for Science, managing editor of supercomputing publications at NASA Ames Research Center, and Web editor at e-book pioneer NuvoMedia. I have a B.A. in the history of science from Harvard College and a PhD in the history and social study of science and technology from MIT. I've published articles in Science, Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Technology and Culture, Alaska Airlines Magazine, and World Business, and I've been a guest of NPR, CNN, CNBC, NECN, WGBH and the PBS NewsHour. I'm a frequent conference participant and enjoy opportunities to moderate panel discussions and on-stage chats. My personal site: waderoush.com My social media coordinates: Twitter: @wroush Facebook: facebook.com/wade.roush LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/waderoush Google+ : google.com/+WadeRoush YouTube: youtube.com/wroush1967 Flickr: flickr.com/photos/wroush/ Pinterest: pinterest.com/waderoush/