Google Buys Stake in Peer-to-Peer Lending Company

Today, Google bought a minority interest in the peer-to-peer lending website, Lending Club. The company, along with Foundation Capital, led a $125 million move to buy shares of Lending Club from existing investors.

Lending Club is a website where users lend money to each other and are paid back with interest. In a Lending Club press release, Google's David Lawee said the lending company "is using the Internet to reshape the financial system and profoundly transform the way people think of credit and investment." Now that Google owns part of the company, Lawee will sit on Lending Club's board in an observer role.

Lending Club said in the release that, "We believe our relationship with Google will be very helpful in better serving our customers. We couldn't be more excited to have them on board." Since Lending Club's inception, it has assisted in $1.65 billion in loans, and has had 22 consecutive quarters of positive returns.

The article Google Buys Stake in Peer-to-Peer Lending Company originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Chris Neiger has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Google. The Motley Fool owns shares of Google. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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