KWC Hosts Inaugural CanLend Conference

KWC recently hosted the inaugural Canadian Online Lending Forum (CanLend) where investors and financial advisors were able to learn more about the online lending landscape in Canada and the United States and to hear directly from 8 different lending platforms from both countries.

The CanLend concept grew from our observation that while the online lending space in Canada is seeing significant growth and that there are many new and innovative entrants, there was not yet a forum for investors to efficiently inform themselves of developments in the market and to identify investment opportunities. Of course, there are many fintech and private equity events here and various lending- oriented conferences in the US but nothing that specifically focuses on credit investment opportunities for Canadians. We created CanLend to fill that void.The half day event featured presentations from lenders ranging from some of the largest marketplace lenders in the US to earlier stage lenders with novel business models. Various types of lending were covered, including prime consumer, subprime consumer, real estate, and several different forms of small business credit. Featured lending platforms were:

• Lending Club

• Prosper

• Biz2Credit

• Sharestates

• IOU Financial

• Lending Loop

• Espresso

• Progressa

Here is a link to coverage of the event that appeared in the Financial Post.

In case you missed the event, we expect to hold another one in October. If you are interested in attending or participating in any capacity please send us a note at info@kilgourwilliams.com and we will connect directly.