Vouch Raises $6 Million Series A For Its Social Network For Credit

TECHCRUNCH: Vouch, a so-called “social network for credit” founded by ex-PayPal and ex-Prosper alumni, now has an additional $6 million in Series A funding to continue to grow its business. While there are a number of alternative lending startups on the market today, Vouch’s differentiating factor is that it leverages a person’s social connections in order to determine their credit-worthiness. In addition, these connections can choose to “vouch” for a loan recipient – even agreeing to pay back a portion of the debt if the borrower defaults.

New investors in the network include Core Innovation Capital, Data Collective, Stanford StartX Fund and Cooley LLP, and are joined by Vouch’s existing investors, First Round Capital, Greylock, IDG Ventures and AngelList. Combined with an earlier seed round, this brings Vouch’s total raise to date to $9.6 million.

Arjan Schütte, Founder and Managing Partner of Core Innovation Capital, and whose background includes time spent managing a venture fund targeting the unbanked and underbanked, is also now joining Vouch’s board.

Vouch was co-founded in 2013 by CEO Yee Lee, previously of PayPal, Slide, Skype and more recently, Katango (acquired by Google), and One Jackson (acquired by TaskRabbit); Sue Korn, previously VP of Finance and Head of Operations at peer-to-peer lending marketplace Prosper; and PayPal vet Hugh Olliphant. The team also includes several other execs and engineers hailing from PayPal, Prosper, and Google.

The service has been in beta for a year, but launched publicly last month.

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