The last 12 months have been good for alternative financial services. And this is quantifiable from a variety of vantage points. A decade ago, alternative financial services was mostly a euphemism for seeing a quasi-reputable, or in some cases totally irreputable lender. In the last year alone, it has become the provenance to two $1 billion-plus IPOs (OnDeck and LendingClub) and in the last 60 days it has minted a new entrant to the unicorn startup club (Prosper).
And while Prosper is the latest alt lending unicorn – it surely won’t be its last. In the 20 weeks of 2015, our Innovation Investment Tracker shows us that Alternative Financial Services has been in the Top 3 categories for investor interest for 14 of those weeks – or 70 percent of the time.