present The Daring Dozen dar·ing adjective 1. (of a person or action) adventurous or audaciously bold. synonyms: bold, audacious, adventurous, intrepid, venturesome, fearless, brave, unafraid, unshrinking, undaunted, dauntless, valiant, valorous, heroic, dashing. 2. Stands a good chance of changing the financial world! Forewords I first started writing about the Alternative Finance space over five years ago for the Financial Times, observing the emergence of pioneers such as Zopa here in the UK. At the time I thought there was a huge opportunity here for investors and borrowers to work out a way of sidestepping the big banks, called disintermediation in the technical jargon. What I didn't realise was just how audacious this disruptive technology would prove to be, i.e how literally every bit of the financial spectrum could, arguably, be disintermediated using new technologies and clever marketing. In my naive way I thought we'd probably stop at fund raising for consumer loans and perhaps SME loans/equity. Little did I realise that once the fuse was lit, virtually every financial product was suddenly up for grabs. This special report highlights the sheer scale of disruptive innovation sweeping through the UK and Europe with a whole legion of platforms now attacking every niche imaginable. My sense is that we're at the tipping point of something really quite big. These new products and platforms are numerous and growing in number by the week BUT to date the amount of money that's been invested is still (in the great schema of things) quite small at just over £1 billion according to our internal data. So we have a situation where there are lots of great, disruptive brands but no killer products that have harvested billions of pounds. Our hunch at www.altfinancenews.com is that this will change in the next two years. Our own internal estimates suggest that the entire sector will probably have transacted over £3 billion (at least) by the end of 2015 and we should have at least one (if not two) billion pound platforms in the market. More importantly though we think at least one of the Daring Dozen identified in this report could surprise us all and smash every forecast. Each and every proposition here is revolutionary and daring. We'd like to think that each could dominate its space within a year or so, although inevitably more than a few will crash and burn. But they're absolutely worth watching. Killer propositions eventually turn into killer platforms which in turn kill 'old world' businesses stone cold dead! David Stevenson Editor-in-chief AltFinanceNews Innovation is often an overused word (and I say that as Director of Innovation at PwC). A quick glance at Amazon.com shows 64,000+ books on the subject. Yet truly innovative business models are not hard to spot. Technology, and the internet in particular have enabled platform-led business models to spring up in multiple sectors. From Amazon revolutionizing book selling, to EBay shaking up retailing, what these platforms have in common, aside from technology, is a two-sided business model. Not only can you buy a sofa via EBay, you can set up a sofa shop should you so wish. In the UK we have seen similar moves in online gambling: when Betfair started it allowed punters, for the first time to lay a bet (i.e. bet something wouldn’t happen) as well as the more normal practice of placing one. And this is what we believe is innovative about the rapidly growing P2P sector. These platforms bring lenders and borrowers together – at pace – in a matching exercise that bears a close resemblance to some of the other companies mentioned above. You can choose to be a lender, or choose to be a borrower, depending on your means, costs of capital and risk appetite. No wonder, then, that Betfair founders and backers sit on the boards of some of the UK’s P2P companies. All growth sectors experience growing pains and we shouldn’t expect this one to be any different. Regulation is imminent (and welcomed by the companies themselves) and new business models emerge on a regular basis, as demonstrated by some of the divergent companies mentioned in this note. In due course, as the sector matures, we should expect consolidation, capital raising and yes, company failure. The latter is, after all, just part of the innovation cycle. What seems certain, however, is that the growth experienced to date will continue to attract capital (perhaps aided by regulation) as alternative finance business models develop. We’re excited about the future. Mark James Director, Innovation PwC As a modest early supporter of disruptive businesses such as Betfair, I hope I've developed a sense of when something very big is about to happen. When Betfair was still a small business there were many who thought that disruptive change just wasn't possible in the gambling space. They were wrong and they'll be wrong again within financial services. The big banks probably don't feel that threatened at the moment by the new Alternative Finance platforms but that'll change as platforms that operate in P2P lending and crowdfunding gain real scale. The new breed of p2p platforms have such a massive cost advantage over the traditional banks that it is hard to envisage this story staying hidden for long. Regulation will be a key stimulus to the rate of acceptance and growth. More institutional money will then begin to flow into the space, as wealth managers and asset managers look for opportunities to generate a sustainable income from lending to people and businesses. Information flows will improve, confidence in the platforms will rise, benchmarks and ratings will start to emerge. Platforms will become better understood, will offer more products and become deeper and more liquid – ushering in more capital. And then before any of us have quite twigged, this sector will have emerged as a big new investment class, with countless billions of pounds invested in the space and dozens of institutions providing capital for everything from consumer loans and SME growth capital through to funding for bands and artists. And then - with the benefit of hindsight - we will all say that disruptive change was inevitable and that of course the high street banks had their vulnerabilities! The big task now though is to fine tune the propositions, see who has the most robust products and propositions and work out how to get institutional scale money into the sector so that AltFinance businesses can thrive and grow. I'm hugely excited about the opportunity to help investment institutions tap this diverse and growing market and genuinely believe that, with the help of our super bright team at P2PCS, we can transform the UK funding scene, providing billions of pounds of new financing opportunities for businesses small and large and fundamentally transform the relationship between providers of capital and borrowers. So, lots of work needs to be done (standardizing information and opening access to platforms are just two rudimentary tasks) but I suspect we've got to go back to basics first … what's the proposition and is the platform different enough to make a difference and disrupt UK finance? A few of these disruptors might even be amongst this daring dozen! Simon Champ CEO P2PCS What drove the selection process for The Daring Dozen? It centered upon the word innovation. The alternative finance sector – within which these dozen platforms operate – is marked by invention. It is youthful, vibrant, and disruptive. You may think that the very prefix “alternative” says it all about where the sector stands, but peripheral it is not. Standards and regulations are helping to mold the sector into an extremely viable, increasingly mainstream option for fund seeking. The sector’s recent passing of the £1 billion milestone is emblematic of that. “Modern finance” is beginning to creep in as the preferred term of reference. We are at the point now where we can reasonably talk of the “typical” crowdfunding model, or the “standard” peer-to-peer lending platform. These twelve trailblazers are different. Each has a twist or a turn that in some way represents a departure from what has now become normality in the sector. In choosing The Daring Dozen, I actively sought out that differentiating streak. That was criterion one. But as anyone who follows the alternative finance space with even the mildest curiosity will know, seemingly unique platforms spring up on a weekly basis. In selecting these twelve, I also stressed the need for feasibility. The members of this list will continue the flow of diversity and flexibility into the alternative finance space. Their structural quirks are welcome, and those quirks will or have already set each of these platforms in good stead. Among these dozen may be found a few platforms that will one day set off ripples of emulation themselves. Ryan Weeks Chief news writer AltFinanceNews Wellesley & Co. www.wellesley.co.uk Every loan made via this platform is financed in full by Wellesley & Co., and then partially refinanced by their customers. Every lending decision is made with the platform’s own money at risk of not being repaid. Searching for a platform to quiet the naysayers of peer-to-peer lending? Wellesley & Co. could be the answer. It is the first platform to have some skin in the game for every loan facilitated – a purpose for which £5 million was initially set aside. Investors are sure to feel more confident when their risk is shared by the platform itself. Wellesley’s professional lending and credit team assess the credit risk of all loans.