Daric, A New Peer To Peer Lending Platform, Will Go Live Next Week

Daric, a new peer to peer lending platform, will launch next week as a place for individuals and small businesses to obtain loans, and a place for lenders to see up to 9-10% returns on their investments. Individuals will be able to apply for a loan up to $35,000 and small businesses can apply for a loan up to $50,000 on Daric. According to an SEC filing, the company will offer up to $10 million on the platform, which will compete with Lending Club and other peer to peer lending services.

The company was co-founded by Greg Ryan, Vasant Ramachandran, and Cooper Dawson. Dawson notes that Daric hopes to differentiate itself with a great user experience, as other financial services companies haven’t focused on design much. He explains that users don’t have to upload any documents to Daric, and can make an account, apply, and (if approved) receive a loan in just a few hours, instead of weeks.

Ramachandran tells me the company wants to focus on the positives of a person’s accounts: the income, cash flows, and the ability to pay back a loan, instead of looking at traditional frameworks like credit lines, delinquencies, and credit scores.

Daric raised an angel round of funding in January 2012 from Goldcrest Investments; Dick Kovacevich, former CEO of Wells Fargo; Jennifer Johnson, COO of Franklin Templeton Investments; and others.

Ryan, whose father was an early employee at Goldman Sachs, says his “fundamentally different approach is that this is a technology
play.” He believes Daric can leverage big data and be much more efficient and cost effective than a traditional bank by using
computer algorithms.

Daric will go live on Wednesday, November 27, barring any unforeseen regulatory issues.