Funding Circle

Overview

Invest in American businesses on the Funding Circle marketplace. Add secured commercial term loans into your investment portfolio. By investing in successful and growing businesses through Funding Circle, investors can diversify their fixed-income portfolios and access attractive returns. Businesses get fast, easy access to financing to grow, create jobs, support local communities and drive the economy forward. It’s a better solution for everyone.

Why Invest

• Small business financing made easy.
• Access to a growing asset class.
• Historical annual returns of 5 - 7%.

How you make money

You are lending money to borrowers and therefore earn monthly interest on your invested (or loaned) principal.

How Funding Circle makes money

By charging investors 1% servicing fee annually. On loans, a single one-time fee to cover our costs of evaluating and originating your loan. The fee is based on the strength of your credit profile and is deducted from your total loan proceeds, which means you do not pay this fee if you do not receive a loan. Rates for borrowers are 3.49% to 6.99%

Is it Safe?

"Default Risk — Investments are neither FDIC insured nor equivalent to bank CDs or Treasury notes. Inflation Risk — Similar to bonds (since there’s a fixed rate), you have the risk of inflation eating at your returns. However, with the high rate of return, this risk is reduced. Liquidity Risk — Loans can be sold on the secondary market, but it can take some time to unwind every single note. Lending Club is a long-term investment. Economy Risk — Another recession will more than likely increase overall defaults of individuals within Lending Club. This would cause your return to decrease."