OnDeck Revenue Grows as Investors Gobble Up Loans

OnDeck Capital saw its revenue soar in the second quarter thanks partly to the firm's decision to sell many of its small-business loans to outside investors.

New York-based OnDeck, which was founded in 2007, began as a balance-sheet lender but has added marketplace lending over the last 18 months. Under that business model, OnDeck originates small-business loans on a Web-based platform and then sells them to investors.

The nonbank lender makes loans to small-business owners who want speedy access to cash and often are unable to qualify for a more affordable bank loan.

In the second quarter, OnDeck sold $143 million of loans on its platform, or 34% of the firm's term loan originations. That was up from 24% in the same period a year earlier.

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OnDeck also announced Thursday that an affiliate of the investment bank Jefferies has entered into an agreement that gives it the right to purchase up to $500 million in OnDeck loans over the next year.

OnDeck's gross revenue rose to $63.3 million during the second quarter, up 78% from the same period a year earlier. The company attributed the improvement to two factors: the increase in loans sold through its online marketplace and a concurrent rise in total loans outstanding.

The unpaid principal balance on OnDeck's loans rose to $503 million in the second quarter, up from $338 million in the same period in 2014.

"As we progress through the remainder of 2015," Chief Financial Officer Howard Katzenberg said in a press release, "we will continue investing in the business while also being opportunistic in the expansion and diversification of our funding sources at attractive terms."

OnDeck reported quarterly net income of $4.7 million. That was up from a $1 million loss in the same period a year earlier.

The effective interest yield on the company's loans was 37.6% in the first quarter, down from 41.2% a year earlier. The average annual percentage rate on loans fell to 46.5% from 56.7% in the second quarter of last year.

OnDeck attributed those declines to an increase in average loan term length, a shift to lower-cost customer acquisition channels, and ongoing efforts to cut its prices.

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