Today, Google (GOOGL 0.55%) 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.
