SOFI : Student Loans :: Earnest : Personal Lending?

If you have been following our prior Rounds of the Week, you know we here at C:V. are big fans of the disruption in the student loan space that SOFI is causing. Well, this week we are featuring a company that is armed with $15M to wreak havoc on the personal lending market in the same way SOFI is the student loan market!  It’s time for you to meet Earnest.

Name: Earnest

Website: https://www.meetearnest.com/

Funding to Date: $15M ($15M Series A)

Deal Notables: We really like this business model of low-cost loans to qualified applicants via future expectations and less on prior history.  That, and the market potential is staggering so we think Earnest has some serious upside. Another interesting note is that the company is based in San Francisco but chose Boston as their pilot city.  Earnest claims it is due to the “high population of young working professionals” but we personally think Boston’s general awesomeness was the deciding factor.  But hey, we aren’t biased or anything…