Auxmoney, a Germany-based peer-to-peer lending marketplace backed by insurance providers Aegon and Transamerica, raised €150m ($178m) in a funding round led by private equity firm Centerbridge on Wednesday.
Venture capital firm Foundation Capital also contributed to the round. Centerbridge has concurrently agreed to acquire a majority stake in Auxmoney through a secondary transaction that will involve all its existing investors retaining shares in the company.
Founded in 2007, Auxmoney operates a peer-to-peer lending marketplace for consumers in addition to an online marketplace for business lending, paying out loans within 24 hours of them being agreed.
The company said this week it has experienced 20-fold growth over the past five years. It will use the funding to further strengthen its market position and drive technology development, and hopes to tap into business opportunities created by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Index Ventures and Union Square Ventures provided $12m in series A funding for Auxmoney in 2013 and returned the following year for a $16m series B round led by Foundation Capital that included Partech Ventures and private investor Scott Bommer.
Aegon injected $170m in series C funding in 2015 before SevenVentures, the corporate venturing arm of media group ProSiebenSat.1, led an eight-digit series D round in March 2016, that also featured Index Ventures, Union Square Ventures and Foundation Capital.
Transamerica Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of Transamerica, invested an undisclosed amount in the company nine months later. Aegon returned in early 2017 to lead its $16m series E round, with contributions from unnamed existing backers.
SevenVentures subsequently sold its stake in Auxmoney to private equity firm Lexington Partners in mid-2017 as part of a larger divestment of portfolio companies.
