Lending platform Blackmoon raises $2.5 million in new funding

By Jonathan Keane for VentureBeat

Russian lending platform Blackmoon has raised $2.5 million in funding from Target Global, A&NN Group, Flint Capital, and a number of unnamed private investors.

Blackmoon’s platform allows institutional investors to invest directly in loads issues by balance-sheet lenders. It currently works with lenders in the US, Russia, Finland and several other countries around Europe. The new funds will be used to expand deeper into the US – by applying for a broker/dealer license in 2017 – and continue the development of its platform.

This platform, which describes itself as a competitor to Lending Club, enables greater transparency, said CEO Oleg Seydak, who tips the global market to be in the hundreds of billions. Blackmoon’s business model involves charging investors for access to loans that it says are not available on other services.

“[U]nlike other players, we’re not trying to replace banks; we want to give them and other balance-sheet lenders a unique tool to improve efficiency and risk management,” commented Seydak.

“The proposed solution can freely scale both geographically and through the product segments, providing new opportunities for lending institutions and owners of capital,” added Mikhail Lobanov, partner at Target Global.

First appeared at VentureBeat