VENTURE CAPITAL POST

London-based Zopa, the largest peer-to-peer lending company in Europe, raised $25 million in funding from Arrowgrass Capital Partners. Proceeds will be used to continue the lending firm's growth.

A group of financial tech startups are tapping into a niche market wherein 80 million people with low FICO credit scores could not obtain loans from banks and other financial institutions.

While banks received USD2.3 billion in quantitative easing, they haven't been lending to small businesses and consumers and have pushed then to peer-to-peer lenders.

Peer-to-peer financial lending platform Ppdai received a significant investment worth USD35 million from the financial arm of Alibaba Group, said sources who were familiar with the transaction.

California-based peer-to-peer lending company Prosper Marketplace disclosed that it had received USD25 million in funding from investors including Sequoia Capital and BlackRock, Inc.

P2P investors plan to securitize loans to further growth in originations.

Wall Street investors brought excitement as well as risks to the P2P sector.