P2P The institutional investor appetite for marketplace lending appears to have strengthened greatly this past year, despite the Lending Club debacle of 2016. Many industry advocates, including Prosper's Ron Suber, have pontificated tirelessly on the validity of the asset class to any and all who were interested to hear and has been criss-crossing the globe this last year to deliver that message, resulting in a recent commitment of up to $5B in loan acquisitions from some very heavy hitters. So when we received this announcement from California-based fund Prime Meridian Capital Management, we thought it was another indicator that the marketplace lending industry is really evolving and is poised to become an even more mainstream investment to institutional investors in the coming years. Kudos to them for this award.

(Cindy Taylor/Publisher)

"LendIt, the world’s largest show in lending and fintech, announced that they have selected Prime Meridian Capital Management as the winner in the Top Fund Manager category at the first annual LendIt Awards. The Top Fund Manager finalists were awarded to companies that demonstrated vision and commitment to the online lending sector, while delivering outstanding performance.

Prime Meridian Capital Management was selected as a finalist out of hundreds of applicants worldwide and by more than 30 industry experts who judged finalists representing innovation, emerging talent and top performers. Prime Meridian was in competition for top honors with fellow industry leaders, HCG and Incline. Award winners were announced at The LendIt Awards Ceremony on March 7 at the LendIt conference in New York City. A complete list of industry winners can be found here.

“Having been on the front lines of emerging and later stage FinTech companies for the past five years, we wanted to unveil our own best of the best industry accolades,” said Jason Jones, Co-Founder, LendIt. “We were positively overwhelmed with the high number and high caliber of entrees. These finalists represent some of the most innovative companies that are radically improving financial services through technology.”

“We are truly honored to be named as Top Fund Manager by LendIt”, says Don Davis, managing partner at Prime Meridian Capital Management. “We’re also optimistic about the growing opportunities that this asset class holds for both institutional and retail investors in the coming years.”

Source: Prime Meridian Capital Management