NZ P2P lender, Harmoney, to launch in Australia
New Zealand-based peer-to-peer lending platform Harmoney has completed a NZ$200m funding round, led by P2P Global Investments. Among other things, the funding will back a planned entry into the Australian market. Harmoney's Australian chief, Ben Taylor, said P2P lending is "embryonic" in Australia and there is room to take a share of the banks personal loan books. "Our competitors are the banks. There is AUD$55bn of personal lending in Australia – I am hopeful we will take a portion of that," he said.

The rush to take a chunk of banks' $55 billion personal loan revenue will accelerate in November when NZ peer-to-peer lender Harmoney starts operations in Australia with $NZ200 million ($180 million) in new funding behind it.

It will join three other "marketplace lenders" doing personal loans – SocietyOne, RateSetter Australia and MoneyPlace, which is due to start operating in October.

Harmoney's Ben Taylor says there is enough room in the 'embryonic' Australian market for the NZ company.

So far Harmoney has facilitated $NZ100 million in the year since it started, mostly to middle aged people consolidating higher interest personal loans or for home improvements, out of about NZ$1 billion worth of applications. This is well above P2P rivals in Australia so far.

Three-year old SocietyOne – backed by equity investments from the likes of Westpac, James Packer and News Corp – has "matched" about $40 million and RateSetter Australia has just reached $11 million, with current "demand" running at close to $39 million.