Prosper and SBI Holdings to Establish Prosper in Japan and Other Asian Countries

San Francisco – August 6, 2007 – Prosper (www.prosper.com), America’s first people-to-people lending marketplace, and SBI Holdings, Inc., a holding company for SBI Group, the financial innovation leader of Japan, today announced an agreement to form a joint venture to facilitate the launch of Prosper in Japan and explore other Asian markets.

“As Prosper takes the first step toward expanding to Japan, we’re confident SBI is the optimal partner to navigate the regulatory landscape and successfully launch and operate the Prosper marketplace in the region,” said Chris Larsen, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Prosper.

“With over $79 million in funded loans and more than 380,000 members, Prosper is the leading person-to-person lending marketplace,” said Hayato Kameta, incoming Chief Executive Officer of the joint venture. “SBI Group’s experience and resources in both the Internet and financial sectors, combined with the vision and infrastructure of Prosper, makes this joint venture well positioned to develop and execute a business plan which meets the regulatory and business environment in Japan and other Asian countries.”

SBI Group has a market capitalization in excess of $8 billion and consists of 65 consolidated subsidiaries and 12 affiliated companies, including 9 public companies. SBI online finance business include SBI E*Trade Securities Co., Ltd., Morningstar Japan K.K. and E-LOAN as a business unit of SBI Holdings. To find out more about SBI Holdings, Inc., visit www.sbigroup.co.jp/english/.

About Prosper

Prosper (www.prosper.com), America’s first people-to-people lending marketplace, was created to make consumer lending more financially and socially rewarding for everyone. Prosper’s membership consists of over 380,000 people from across the country. Since launching in February 2006, over $79 million in loans have been funded in the marketplace.

The way Prosper works is intuitive to people who have used eBay. Instead of listing and bidding on items, people list and bid on loans using Prosper’s online auction platform. People who register as Prosper lenders set the minimum interest rate they are willing to earn and bid in increments of $50 to $25,000 on loan listings they select. In addition to criteria commonly used by institutional lenders, such as credit scores and histories, Prosper lenders can consider borrowers’ personal stories and group affiliations. Groups on Prosper are instrumental in bringing people together for the common goal of borrowing at better rates. People who want to borrow on Prosper create loan listings for up to $25,000 and set the maximum rate they are willing to pay a lender. Then the auction begins as Prosper lenders bid down the interest rate. Once the auction ends, Prosper takes the bids with the lowest rates and combines them into one simple loan to the borrower. Prosper handles all on-going loan administration tasks including loan repayment and collections on behalf of the matched borrowers and lenders.

Prosper was co-founded by Chris Larsen, co-founder of E-LOAN, and John Witchel, technology entrepreneur. Backed by Accel Partners, Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures, Fidelity Ventures, Meritech Capital, and Omidyar Network, Prosper has raised approximately $40 million. Prosper’s marketplace platform is patent pending.

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This may or may not be a sccop since I agreed that the “news is under embargo until 12:00 am EST on Sunday.”  Thus I would suspect that this news is being widly released.  Regardless, I am publishing this news as soon as I am allowed. 

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