US P2P lending site Prosper says it has inked a letter of intent with existing investors for a series d funding round of up to $15.8 million.
The site, which has already raised around $43 million, says it expects to close the latest round of between $13.3 million and $15.8 million by 15 April.
The funding comes after a difficult two years for Prosper, which only resumed lending in July after being forced to close its doors to new loans the previous November in order to register its business with the SEC.
Last November the site had to sell a convertible promissory note worth $1 million at 15% per annum interest to the venture capital firm run by Capital One co-founder Nigel Morris.
However, with regulatory issues seemingly settled and funding secured, Prosper is in bullish mood, boasting that it it is closing in on $200 million in loans facilitated. The site has around one million members and over 32,000 funded loans totalling over $193 million, giving it two-thirds of the US P2P market.
Chris Larsen, CEO, Prosper, says: "As peer-to-peer lending enters the next stage of its evolution, it is clear that the industry will become a third way of banking. A way of consumer lending that is more durable and transparent than the now discredited Wall Street securitisation schemes; more opportunistic for lenders; and fairer for borrowers compared to credit card companies in particular."