The addition of financing to the Lending Club portfolio seems to be one more step in the direction of the company’s evolution into the modern day bank. As more traditional banks neglect the needs of much of the population in both business and personal finance, the alternative lending space is heating up, more players are growing fast and investors are placing their bets. And if traditional banks are smart, many of these companies could be interesting acquisition targets. But Lending Club has long been seen as an IPO hopeful, so perhaps we’ll see a public offering from the company in the not to distant future.

http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/17/lending-club-raises-115m-in-debt-and-equity-buys-financing-company-springstone-financial-for-140m/?ncid=rss