Postgrad lender Prodigy Finance secures $750m for global expansion
Fintech lender Prodigy Finance has secured two funding deals worth a total of $750m (£545m), to finance its expansion into new markets including China, Australia, and South America.
The peer-to-peer lending platform specialises in postgraduate student finance, and it will use the funds to tap into the lucrative international student loan market.
Asset management firm CPP Investments has agreed to provide Prodigy with up to $500m through its wholly owned subsidiary CPPIB Credit Investments.
In addition to this, Prodigy Finance has secured a $250m funding line with the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), which partners with the private sector to finance “solutions to critical challenges facing the developing world today”. At least half of the DFC funds will be used to support students from low-income and lower-middle-income countries.
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Prodigy said that it has seen an increase in demand for international student loans, with applications up by 50 per cent year-on-year.
The two new funding lines mean that Prodigy Finance can now accept applications from students from a number of countries and regions which were previously excluded due to funding eligibility restrictions in 2020. These countries include: China, Australia, Bangladesh, South Korea, Spain, Chile, Singapore, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and most of South America.
“We have always believed that talent is borderless and finance should be too, so we’re thrilled to now be able to support students from all these additional countries,” said Joel Frisch, head of global acquisition at Prodigy Finance
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“In total we can now help students from over 120 countries worldwide and want to keep being a leader in helping global talent achieve its true potential.”
Since the company was founded in 2007, Prodigy Finance has funded more than $1bn in graduate education loans to more than 20,000 students from over 100 countries.
All loans are underwritten based on the students’ future earning potential, using the platform’s proprietary credit model.
According to a recent report by Prodigy, 89 per cent of those borrowers said they had limited or no other options to fund their degree, 99.77 per cent of them successfully graduated their courses, and 72 per cent said that their postgraduate degree has allowed them to pursue their dream career.
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