Abstract

The case focus on the 9 years old company called Lending Club Corporation (Lending Club). Based in San Francisco California, the startup has been created by Renaud Laplanche, french entrepreneur, in order to provide an online marketplace for investors and borrowers. After several years of consecutive funding turns, Lending Club is considered as the most emblematic peer-to-peer lending company in the USA having generated more than $9 billion in loans since its creation. In August 2014, Lending Club Corporation, filled for an IPO in the New York Stock Exchange. Four month later, December 10th 2014, the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Lending company was raising almost $1 billion in New York in the largest US tech IPO in 2014. The next day the stock price reached the value of USD23.42 a share, soaring 56%, valuing the company at USD8.5 billions. Despite this milestone, a growing volume of customers and an increasing number of states where the company can operate, Lending Club is struggling to reach sustainable profits. The continuous loss of money is worrying investors as the company does not seem able to reach the right volume of customers to profit of economies of scale. More concerning, the growth rate of the number of loans originated by the company is slowing down. Thus, since the peak of December 2014 the share price decreased severely. The issue is to understand how an internet based company, usually enjoying less operating costs than its traditional counterparts is still not showing any steady profits. Renaud Laplanche has to deal with this lack of trust illustrated by an erratic share price. Should he change its business model or should he keep going on its track ?

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