US online person-to-person loan exchange Prosper has raised $20 million in a series c financing round led by DAG Ventures and Meritech Capital Partners.
Accel Partners, Benchmark Capital, Fidelity Ventures and Omidyar Network also participated in the funding round, which brings the total amount of capital raised by Prosper to $40 million.
Prosper offers an eBay-style marketplace in which people list and bid on loans over an online auction platform. Individual borrowers say how much they need to borrow and the maximum interest rate they will pay. Interested lenders say how much they want to lend, and at what rate. Prosper takes the lowest price lenders and groups them into a loan.
Since launching in February 2006, Prosper's membership has grown to over 330,000 individuals with $70 million in loans funded in the marketplace.
Chris Larsen, the co-founder and former chief executive of E-Loan who set up Prosper, says: "This latest round of financing provides us with considerable resources toward maintaining our leadership position and continuing to rapidly grow the Prosper marketplace."
The company will soon face new competition on its home turf from the UK's Zopa - which is preparing a North American launch - and from Richard Branson's Virgin group, which recently took a majority stake in Massachusetts-based CircleLending.