Peer-to-peer Lending Enters the South African Mainstream as Barclays Africa Invests in RainFin

Peer-to-peer Lending Enters the SouthPeer-to-peer Lending Enters the South African Mainstream as Barclays Africa Invests in RainFin PR Newswire CAPE TOWN, South Africa, March 5, 2014 RainFin, South Africa's leading peer-to-peer marketplace, announces that Barclays Africa Group Limited (Barclays Africa) has acquired a 49% stake in its business. This investment is set to give a major boost to the emerging sector of lending exchanges and social lending in South Africa. "We're excited to have finalised this transaction with Barclays Africa after a long and thorough due diligence and negotiation. This shows that the peer- to-peer lending model has come of age in South Africa and this transaction brings the concept into the mainstream of the country's financial services sector," says Sean Emery the CEO of RainFin. Emery adds: "We believe that the investment in RainFin will compliment Barclays Africa's lending business in Africa while giving them a foothold in Africa's fast-growing peer-to-peer lending market." This transaction comes at a time where there is significant investor movement in the global peer-to-peer industry from the UK and US to China and India. The US peer-to-peer market, led by the Lending Club and Prosper, is enjoying triple digit growth rates and have attracted interest from global venture capital firms like Sequoia Capital and BlackRock as well as Google and other industry players.