We’ve focused so much on the travails of the marketplace lending industry that we haven’t given enough attention to the amount of innovation that’s going into online lending in general. We hone in too much on the headline numbers. The addiction to growth, and the subsequent slowdown in just part of the industry, belies the fact that there’s a ton of things happening that are worthy of our attention.
The Tradestreaming Awards are a step in the right direction towards recognizing the talent, energy, and vision that are required to create great digital financial products. The following are our inaugural winners in the lending category.
Best Online Consumer Lender
This was an award that went to a consumer lender with the best overall user experience, product selection, and potential to massively grow its online business.
Winner: CommonBond

As an online student loan refinancing platform, CommonBond helps people save up to $14,000 over the life of their loans. And it does so through a friendly, easy-to-use interface and responsive, outstanding customer service cited by many customers.
The company takes its community approach seriously, pledging money to education for children in need as part of every loan it refinances. Now, with its new 401(k) product, CommonBond enables employers to turn debt repayment into an employee perk.
Best Online Business Lender
This went to a lender targeting businesses with engaging products followed by a great user experience.
Winner: Behalf

Behalf’s version of on-demand purchase financing is changing the way vendors work with their business customers. Through a nearly instantaneous credit application, Behalf essentially offers vendors an outsourced financing unit that provides short term loans to their customers. Business customers use Behalf to quickly finance individual purchases, some of which are eligible for fee free net terms. The firm scored 9.1 on TrustPilot with 150 reviews.
Most Innovative Lender
Tradestreaming recognizes a lender that thinks out of the box with creative product design, marketing campaigns, and user experience.
Winner: FastPay

Founded in 2009, FastPay has financed over $1.5 billion in media receivables for digital media businesses. Companies can quickly apply by entering some financial and bank account information either directly or through the firm’s integrations with accounting software like QuickBooks. Once approved, businesses can upload invoices or link their media dashboards like Google or AppNexus. Invoices get verified and FastPay advances a percentage of funds up front and rebates the remaining amount once a client pays an invoice.
Come join these award winners at our first Tradestreaming Money Conference as we explore the impact technology is having on big finance.