Lending Club?s Billion-Dollar Quarter [Infographic] — Lending Club, one of the leading peer-to-peer lending platforms around, announced last week that it recorded its first billion-dollar quarter. The company has now facilitated over $5 billion dollars in loans since it was founded back in 2007.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
OurCrowd, the Jerusalem-based equity crowdfunding company, announced this week that it has helped startups on its platform successfully raise $60 million since launching early last year. The company?s portfolio is made up of 46 startups. Twenty have raised over a million dollars, and four of those have raised over $3 million.
RapGenius, the crowdsourced lyric annotation site, announced on Friday that it has raised $40 million round led by Dan Gilbert, changed its name to just Genius, and introduced a new feature that allows users to make their own sites annotatable.
The platform?s Q1 numbers weren?t very inspiring, though there wasn?t too much cause for concern. Backers were reluctant to spend after the holiday season, and Kickstarter was hacked in mid-February, which may have given some potential backers temporary pause. That?s all a distant memory now, and it?s encouraging to see a bounce-back on Kickstarter?s part.
Having a creator explain the methodology behind a crowdsourcing project can be highly useful when the campaign is successful. But perhaps it’s even more helpful when the project is not as engaging as its creators hoped it would be. That?s exactly what Doug Reside of the NYPL does in his paper ?Crowdsourcing Performance Arts History with NYPL?s Ensemble.?
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has launched an initiative called NameExoWorlds that invites astronomy organizations and groups to submit names for 305 planets outside our solar system that were discovered before December 31, 2008. After the names are submitted, the crowd will be able to vote on the suggestions.
Rose Spinelli, the expert when it comes to raising cash via rewards-based crowdfunding, writes in with her inaugural advice column ‘Rose Recommends.’ She answers questions about whether the crowdfunding field is getting too crowded, and about crowdfunding campaign guidelines. Have your own questions? Submit them in the comments.