PeerIQ, the Wall Street-backed startup that analyzes risk in the peer-to-peer lending market and sells data about it to debt investors, is tacking on an additional $2.5 million to the $6 million it raised in an April seed funding round.
The funding gives the New York-based company a couple of new investors—Victory Park Capital and Fenway Summer Ventures—who join venture capital investor Uprising and an all-star list of Wall Street names, including John Mack (former CEO and Chairman of Morgan Stanley), Vikram Pandit (former CEO of Citigroup), Arthur Levitt (former SEC Chairman), Dan Doctoroff, (former Bloomberg LP CEO), and Eric Schwartz (former co-CEO of Goldman Sachs Asset Management). Uprising and Mack also participated in the add-on funding.
The company said in statement it plans to invest in new features for its analytics tool, as well as adding new customers and staff.
The tack-on funding comes as online lending has emerged as one of the most active sectors in 2015, as Xconomy recently wrote, with millions being poured into the space from both private and public markets. San Francisco-based Fundbox raised $50 million in venture funding this month, only six months after the small-business lender raised another $40 million.
Others from Dealstruck and Able to Lending Club and OnDeck have taken a bite out of the online lending marketplace. PeerIQ and Prosper Marketplace—which raised $165 million this spring from investors including Credit Suisse and J.P. Morgan—have been attracting the attention and dollars of Wall Street and the traditional realm of finance, which sees money to be made as peer-to-peer lenders grow in popularity and prevalence.
