$400B+
in consumer applications for financial services
Even Staff
2016-04-21
Why You Should Care About Marketplace Lending
“Technology allows David to compete with Goliath on a far more even footing.” - Jens Munch
This past December, American Banker named Marketplace Lending their innovation of the year. While the number of companies entering this market certainly influenced their decision, the real catalyst for their choice is the massive disruption that marketplace lending is creating throughout the financial sector. In the past, companies wishing to enter into, and compete in, the personal loan industry faced numerous barriers: large capital requirements, regulation, and security concerns, among others. Technology is changing all of that. As recently as the 1990’s, your local bank was the only outlet available for all of your personal finance needs. Times have certainly changed. In today’s world, I can open a bank account on Simple, do my taxes on Turbotax, manage my credit card rewards through Wallaby, create budgets and track my spending on Mint, invest my hard-earned cash through Betterment, and receive personal financial advice through LearnVest. Finally, the same seamless experience and ease-of-use provided by these technologies has arrived in the world of personal loans. Traditionally, if you were in need of a loan to pay for a big expense (wedding, adoption, pre-school, moving costs…), you had two options: go to your local bank or get a cash advance on your credit card. The first is too formidable and exhausting -- nobody wants to squirm in a chair across the desk from a loan manager as he dissects the minutia of your financial history; and the second is so prohibitively expensive that it might as well not even be an option. Going to your local bank isn't just a matter of time and effort. Banks fail to provide their customers with advanced account-management products, remain opaque in regard to prices and fees, and choose not to serve the full credit spectrum. On top of that, they reject entire contingents of people, and aren't transparent about their reasoning for doing so. On the other hand, credit card companies charge exorbitant rates on cash advances, which average around 15%, but can go as high as 35%. This is where marketplace lending comes in. By addressing these issues and creating a more efficient and consumer-friendly process, the lender and borrower can interact through a simple, easy-to-use online channel, which results in much lower interest rates for borrowers. Marketplace lending platforms take a few key pieces of information - like credit history and behavioral tendencies - and analyze them utilizing machine learning algorithms to expedite the process and minimize costs by removing the middlemen. This is why you should care about the disruption that’s occurring. Marketplace lending will serve many of those who were previously unable to secure a loan, while providing an experience that is simpler, clearer, and cheaper for all. Best of all: it can all be accomplished from the comfort of your home. Welcome to the 21st Century!
Disclamer: The material provided on this site is not intended to provide legal, investment, or financial advice or to indicate the suitability of any Even Financial product or service to your unique circumstances. For specific advice about your unique circumstances, you may wish to consult a qualified professional. Any information or statistical data sourced by Even Financial through hyperlinks, from third-party websites, are provided for informational purposes only. Although we promote products and services form our partners, our opinions are our own.
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Goldman Sachs-backed Even Financial, a digital matchmaker between banks and customers, just bought an insurance startup as life insurers are seeing policy applications boom
Even Financial has acquired LeapLife, a leading insurtech platform. The addition of LeapLife allows Even to immediately commence its insurance capabilities, aimed at simplifying and enhancing the way consumers search, compare, and get matched with insurance policies (LeapLife’s existing platform will continue to operate from leaplife.com). Business Insider wrote an article about it, interviewing our CEO and Founder Phill Rosen.
Even Financial Launches Insurance Offerings With Strategic Acquisition of LeapLife, a Leading Insurtech Platform
Pioneering B2B Fintech Expands its Industry-Leading Financial Services Monetization Platform to Help Insurance Carriers Find and Connect with Consumers New York, New York – April 22, 2020 – Even Financial (Even), the leading API for financial services search, acquisition, and monetization, announced today that it will be launching services for the insurance industry through the acquisition of LeapLife, an insurtech platform and digital life insurance agency. The addition of LeapLife allows Even to immediately commence its insurance capabilities, aimed at simplifying and enhancing the way consumers search, compare, and get matched with insurance policies (LeapLife’s existing platform will continue to operate from leaplife.com). Even and LeapLife now offer the only full end-to-end, multi-carrier digital life insurance marketplace experience. Over the coming weeks, Even will further integrate LeapLife’s technology and insurance offering into its industry-leading API, making turnkey insurance marketplaces programmatically available to a vast network of channel partners — when and where their consumers are most in need — while also enabling the company to expand to other insurance sectors, including homeowners, renters and auto insurance. This adds to Even’s peerless breadth of real-time, personalized financial product offers — an expansive suite that already includes loans, savings, credit cards, and more. “Even’s goal to evolve how financial institutions find and connect with consumers is not limited to loans or credit cards, but applicable to all financial products and services, including insurance,” said Phill Rosen, Even Founder and CEO. “Despite its importance, purchasing life insurance is often an overwhelming and inconvenient experience. With more than $600 billion in premiums paid each year, and only 6% of policies sold completely online, we see tremendous opportunities to help modernize the life insurance industry and offer solutions that solve challenges for consumers and carriers alike.” LeapLife is an established insurtech platform and digital life insurance agency that utilizes data science, deep underwriting knowledge, and proprietary technology, enabling consumers to apply for instant-decision life insurance policies with real-time quotes. LeapLife works with many best-in-class insurance carriers to offer consumers a seamless experience from beginning to end. This approach made Even and Leaplife a perfect match. As a digital insurance broker, LeapLife offers personalized life insurance recommendations based on a consumer’s unique needs. Paired with the Even API, which enables customer acquisition for insurance to be native and programmatic, consumers benefit from a more streamlined, transparent, and highly personalized experience when shopping for life insurance. Just as Even’s 2018 acquisition of Birch (the award-winning credit card rewards app) allowed the company to accelerate its expansion into credit cards, the addition of LeapLife will similarly put Even at the forefront of consumer insurance offerings. Charles Svirk of MassMutual Ventures, an investor in Even, said “The Even and LeapLife teams share a vision that the future of insurance acquisition will rely on the power of data-driven, programmatic distribution. We are thrilled to support them as their industry experience, impressive technology, and trusted relationships will help scale Even’s insurance offering and build partnerships to provide these critical innovations in insurance acquisition.” The Even API and platform solve significant, long-standing pain points in financial services acquisition by seamlessly connecting supply and demand. Even has continued its rapid growth trajectory in 2020, surpassing over $1.5 billion in credit issued through its API and expanding its platform to over 400 partners. Even has secured over $55 million in funding from major financial institutions, venture capital firms, and fintechs to back its goal to evolve the financial services acquisition ecosystem. About Even Financial Founded in 2015, Even Financial is a B2B fintech company that is transforming the way financial institutions find and connect with consumers. By seamlessly bridging financial institutions (including American Express, Goldman Sachs, and SoFi) and channel partners (such as TransUnion and The Penny Hoarder) via its industry-leading API, Even turns any consumer touchpoint into an ROI-driven, fully customizable, programmatic acquisition source for financial product offers with full compliance, security, and scale across loans, savings, credit cards, insurance, and more. Even is backed by leading financial services firms and VCs including American Express Ventures, Canaan Partners, Citi Ventures, F-Prime Capital (Fidelity), Greatpoint Ventures, Goldman Sachs, LendingClub, and MassMutual Ventures. Even is the leading search, comparison, and recommendation engine for financial services. Media Contact: media@evenfinancial.com
Even CEO/Founder Phill Rosen quoted in Protocol Braintrust Newsletter
Our CEO and Founder Phillip Rosen was included in the most recent Protocol Braintrust newsletter along with answers from some thought leaders from Plaid, Slack, and DuckDuckGo!