RISK FACTORS

Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information in this prospectus, including the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and the consolidated financial statements and related notes, before making a decision to invest in our common stock. While we believe the risks and uncertainties described below include all material risks currently known by us, it is possible that these may not be the only ones we face. If any of the risks actually occur, our business, financial condition, operating results and prospects could be materially and adversely affected. In that event, the market price of our common stock could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment.

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

As a rapidly growing company with a relatively limited operating history at our current scale, we face increased risks, uncertainties, expenses and difficulties.

We have a limited operating history at our current scale, and we have encountered and will continue to encounter risks, uncertainties, expenses and difficulties, including:

If we are not able to timely and effectively address these requirements, our business and results of operations may be harmed.

We have incurred net losses in the past and may incur net losses in the future.

As of September 30, 2014, our accumulated deficit was $74.2 million. We anticipate that our operating expenses will increase in the foreseeable future as we seek to continue to grow our business, attract borrowers, investors and partners and further enhance and develop our loan products, marketplace and platform. These efforts may prove more expensive than we currently anticipate, and we may not succeed in increasing our revenue sufficiently to offset these higher expenses. We may incur additional net losses in the future and may not maintain profitability on a quarterly or annual basis.

If we are unable to maintain or increase loan originations facilitated through our marketplace or if existing borrowers or investors do not continue to participate on our marketplace, our business and results of operations will be adversely affected.

We have experienced rapid revenue and origination growth through our marketplace in recent periods, with loan originations through our marketplace more than doubling each year from 2008 through 2013 and with originations totaling $2.1 billion for the year ended December 31, 2013 and $3.0 billion for the nine months ended September 30, 2014. To continue to grow our business, we must continue to increase loan originations

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through our marketplace by attracting a large number of new borrowers who meet our platform’s lending standards and new and existing investors interested in investing in these loans. The number of unique borrowers on our marketplace increased over the prior year by 104%, 125% and 151% for the years ending December 31, 2011, 2012 and 2013, respectively. The number of unique investors on our marketplace increased over the prior year by 32%, 37% and 44% for the years ending December 31, 2011, 2012 and 2013, respectively. There can be no assurance that this increase in the number of unique borrowers and investors will continue to increase. Furthermore, we have experienced a high number of inquiries from potential borrowers who do not meet the criteria for loan application approval. If there are not sufficient qualified loan requests, investors may be unable to deploy their capital in a timely or efficient manner and may seek other investment opportunities. If there are insufficient investor commitments, borrowers may be unable to obtain investment capital for their loans and may stop using our marketplace for their borrowing needs.

A relatively small number of investors account for a large dollar amount of investment in loans funded through our marketplace.

A relatively small number of investors account for a large dollar amount of investment in loans funded through our marketplace. Although we believe there is substantial excess investor demand to replace any investors who may choose not to continue to invest through our marketplace, if we are unable to attract sufficient investor commitments or investors do not continue to participate in our marketplace at the current rates, we may be unable to increase our loan originations and our revenue may grow more slowly than expected or decline over the short term. In addition, if a large number of our existing investors ceased utilizing our marketplace over a short period of time, our business could be temporarily interrupted as new investors complete the administrative and diligence updating processes necessary to enable their investments.

If we are unable to maintain a relationship with an issuing bank, our business will suffer.

We rely on issuing banks to originate all loans and to comply with various federal, state and other laws. Our primary issuing bank is WebBank, a Utah-chartered industrial bank that handles a variety of consumer and commercial financing programs. Springstone Financial, LLC (Springstone), which we acquired in April 2014, relies on NBT Bank and Comenity Bank as issuing banks for its education and patient finance loans.

Our agreements with WebBank are non-exclusive and do not prohibit WebBank from working with our competitors or from offering competing services. Our current agreements with WebBank have initial terms ending in November 2018, with the possibility of two, one-year renewal terms, subject to certain early termination provisions as set forth in the agreements. WebBank currently offers loan programs through another online marketplace. WebBank could decide that working with us is not in its interest, could make working with it cost prohibitive or could decide to enter into exclusive or more favorable relationships with our competitors. In addition, WebBank may not perform as expected under our agreements. We could in the future have disagreements or disputes with WebBank, which could negatively impact or threaten our relationship.

WebBank is subject to oversight by the FDIC and the State of Utah and must comply with complex rules and regulations, licensing and examination requirements, including requirements to maintain a certain amount of regulatory capital relative to its outstanding loans. We are a service provider to WebBank, and as such, we are subject to audit by WebBank in accordance with FDIC guidance related to management of third-party vendors. We may also be subject to the examination and enforcement authority of the FDIC as a bank service company covered by the Bank Service Company Act. If WebBank were to suspend, limit or cease its operations or our relationship with WebBank were to otherwise terminate, we would need to implement a substantially similar arrangement with another issuing bank, obtain additional state licenses or curtail our operations. Although we currently have a non-exclusive arrangement with Cross River Bank, another issuing bank, to date Cross River Bank has not originated any loans through our platform. If we need to enter into alternative arrangements with a different issuing bank to replace our existing arrangements, we may not be able to negotiate a comparable alternative arrangement. Transitioning loan originations to a new issuing bank is untested and may result in delays in the issuance of loans or, if our platform becomes inoperable, may result in our inability to facilitate loans through our platform. If we were unable to enter in an alternative arrangement with a different issuing bank, we would need to obtain a state license in each state in which we operate in order to enable us to originate

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loans, as well as comply with other state and federal laws, which would be costly and time-consuming. If we are unsuccessful in maintaining our relationships with WebBank or other issuing banks, our ability to provide loan products could be materially impaired and our operating results would suffer.

Our quarterly results may fluctuate significantly and may not fully reflect the underlying performance of our business.

Our quarterly results of operations, including the levels of our operating revenue, expenses, contribution margin and other key metrics, may vary significantly in the future and period-to-period comparisons of our operating results may not be meaningful. Accordingly, the results for any one quarter are not necessarily an indication of future performance. Our quarterly financial results may fluctuate due to a variety of factors, some of which are outside of our control and, as a result, may not fully reflect the underlying performance of our business. Fluctuation in quarterly results may adversely affect the price of our common stock. Factors that may cause fluctuations in our quarterly financial results include:

In addition, we experience some seasonality in demand for personal loans, which is generally lower in the first and fourth quarters. While our growth has somewhat masked this seasonality, our operating results could be affected by such seasonality in the future.

If we do not compete effectively in our target markets, our operating results could be harmed.

The personal and small business lending market is competitive and evolving. We compete with financial products and companies that attract borrowers, investors or both. With respect to borrowers, we primarily compete with traditional financial institutions, such as banks, credit unions, credit card issuers and other consumer finance companies. With respect to investors, we primarily compete with other investment vehicles and asset classes, such as equities, bonds and short-term fixed income securities. We also compete with other online credit marketplaces.

Many of our competitors operate with different business models, have different cost structures or participate selectively in different market segments. They may ultimately prove more successful or more adaptable to new regulatory, technological and other developments. Some of our current or potential competitors have significantly more financial, technical, marketing and other resources than we do and may be able to devote greater resources to the development, promotion, sale and support of their platforms and distribution channels. Our potential competitors may also have longer operating histories, more extensive customer bases, greater brand recognition and brand loyalty and broader customer and partner relationships than we have. For example, more established Internet companies that possess large, existing customer bases, substantial financial resources and established distribution channels could enter the market. Additionally, a current or potential competitor may acquire one of our existing competitors or form a strategic alliance with one of our competitors. Our competitors may be better at developing new products, responding quickly to new technologies and undertaking more

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extensive marketing campaigns. If we are unable to compete with such companies and meet the need for innovation in our industry, the demand for our marketplace could stagnate or substantially decline, we could experience reduced revenue or our marketplace could fail to achieve or maintain more widespread market acceptance, any of which could harm our business.

Negative publicity could adversely affect our business and operating results.

Negative publicity about our industry or our company, including the quality and reliability of our marketplace, effectiveness of the credit decisioning and scoring models used in the marketplace, changes to our marketplace, our ability to effectively manage and resolve borrower and investor complaints, privacy and security practices, litigation, regulatory activity and the experience of borrowers and investors with our marketplace or services, even if inaccurate, could adversely affect our reputation and the confidence in, and the use of, our marketplace, which could harm our business and operating results. Harm to our reputation can arise from many sources, including employee misconduct, misconduct by our partners, outsourced service providers or other counterparties, failure by us or our partners to meet minimum standards of service and quality, inadequate protection of borrower and investor information and compliance failures and claims.

If we fail to promote and maintain our brand in a cost-effective manner, we may lose market share and our revenue may decrease.

We believe that developing and maintaining awareness of our brand in a cost-effective manner is critical to attracting new and retaining existing borrowers and investors to our marketplace. Successful promotion of our brand will depend largely on the effectiveness of our marketing efforts and the experience of borrowers and investors in our marketplace. Our efforts to build our brand have involved significant expense, and it is likely that our future marketing efforts will require us to incur significant additional expense. These brand promotion activities may not result in increased revenue and, even if they do, any increases may not offset the expenses incurred. If we fail to successfully promote and maintain our brand or if we incur substantial expenses in an unsuccessful attempt to promote and maintain our brand, we may lose our existing borrowers and investors to our competitors or be unable to attract new borrowers and investors.

Our success and future growth depend significantly on our successful marketing efforts, and if we are unable to attract borrowers and investors to our marketplace, our business and financial results may be harmed.

We intend to continue to dedicate significant resources to our marketing efforts, particularly as we continue to grow our marketplace, introduce new loan products and expand into new states. Our ability to attract qualified borrowers and sufficient investors depends in large part on the success of these marketing efforts and the success of the marketing channels we use to promote our marketplace. Our marketing channels include social media and the press, online partnerships, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, offline partnerships, mail-to-web and radio and television advertising. If any of our current marketing channels become less effective, if we are unable to continue to use any of these channels, if the cost of using these channels were to significantly increase or if we are not successful in generating new channels, we may not be able to attract new borrowers and investors in a cost-effective manner or convert potential borrowers and investors into active borrowers and investors in our marketplace. As a result, our revenue and results of operations would be adversely affected, which may impair our ability to grow our business.

If new loan products and enhancements do not achieve sufficient market acceptance, our financial results and competitive position will be harmed.

We incur expenses and expend resources upfront to develop, acquire and market new loan products and platform enhancements to incorporate additional features, improve functionality or otherwise make our marketplace more desirable to borrowers and investors. New loan products or marketplace or platform enhancements must achieve high levels of market acceptance in order for us to recoup our investment in developing and bringing them to market.

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Any new loan products and changes to our marketplace or platform could fail to attain sufficient market acceptance for many reasons, including:

If our new loan products or marketplace or platform enhancements do not achieve adequate acceptance in the market, our competitive position, revenue and operating results could be harmed. The adverse effect on our financial results may be particularly acute because of the significant development, marketing, sales and other expenses we will have incurred in connection with the new loan products or enhancements.

If we are unable to successfully expand our marketplace to new markets, we may not succeed in growing our business.

Although historically we have focused on the personal loan market, we recently expanded our marketplace to include small business borrowers and have also introduced education and patient finance loans through our acquisition of Springstone. We plan to address additional markets and loan products and expand the types of borrowers and investors to further grow our business. Any failure to successfully address additional market segments and loan products or develop a broader base of borrowers and investors could result in loss of market share or slower growth, which would harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Successful strategic relationships with ecosystem partners are important for our future success.

We anticipate that we will continue to depend on relationships with ecosystem partners to grow our business. We continue to pursue additional relationships with ecosystem partners, such as banks, asset managers and insurance companies. For example, we intend to enter into strategic relationships with community banks and other financial partners to facilitate co-branded loan offerings to their borrower customers through our marketplace. Identifying, negotiating and documenting relationships with ecosystem partners require significant time and resources as does integrating third-party data and services. Our current agreements with ecosystem partners often do not prohibit them from working with our competitors or from offering competing services. Our competitors may be effective in providing incentives to ecosystem partners to favor their products or services or in reducing the volume of loans facilitated through our marketplace. In addition, these ecosystem partners may not perform as expected under our agreements with them, and we may have disagreements or disputes with such partners, which could adversely affect our brand and reputation. If we cannot successfully enter into and maintain effective strategic relationships with ecosystem partners, our business will be harmed.

If the credit decisioning and scoring models we use contain errors or are otherwise ineffective, our reputation and relationships with borrowers and investors could be harmed and our market share could decline.

Our ability to attract borrowers and investors to, and build trust in, our marketplace is significantly dependent on our ability to effectively evaluate a borrower’s credit profile and likelihood of default. To conduct this evaluation, we utilize credit decisioning and scoring models that assign each loan offered on our marketplace a grade and a corresponding interest rate. Our marketplace’s credit decisioning and scoring models are based on algorithms that evaluate a number of factors, including behavioral data, transactional data and employment

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information, which may not effectively predict future loan losses. If we are unable to effectively segment borrowers into relative risk profiles, we may be unable to offer attractive interests rates for borrowers and returns for investors. We refine these algorithms based on new data and changing macro and economic conditions. If any of these credit decisioning and scoring models contain programming or other errors, are ineffective or the data provided by borrowers or third parties is incorrect or stale, our loan pricing and approval process could be negatively affected, resulting in mispriced or misclassified loans or incorrect approvals or denials of loans. While we have not incurred any material liabilities to date, if these errors were to occur in the future, investors may try to rescind their affected investments or decide not to invest in loans or borrowers may seek to revise the terms of their loans or reduce the use of our marketplace for loans.

Credit and other information that we receive from third parties about a borrower may be inaccurate or may not accurately reflect the borrower’s creditworthiness, which may cause us to inaccurately price loans facilitated through our marketplace.

We obtain borrower credit information from consumer reporting agencies, such as TransUnion, Experian or Equifax, and assign loan grades to loan requests based on our marketplace’s credit decisioning and scoring models that take into account reported credit score, other information reported by the consumer reporting agencies and the requested loan amount, in addition to a variety of other factors. A credit score or loan grade assigned to a borrower may not reflect that borrower’s actual creditworthiness because the credit score may be based on outdated, incomplete or inaccurate consumer reporting data, and we do not verify the information obtained from the borrower’s credit report. Additionally, there is a risk that, following the date of the credit report that we obtain and review, a borrower may have:

If borrowers default on loans that are not priced correctly, investors may try to rescind their affected investments in these loans and our reputation may be harmed.

Our reputation may be harmed if information supplied by borrowers is inaccurate, misleading or incomplete.

Borrowers supply a variety of information that is included in the loan listings on our marketplace. Other than as described below, we do not verify this information, and it may be inaccurate or incomplete. For example, we often do not verify a borrower’s stated tenure, job title, home ownership status or intention for the use of loan proceeds. Moreover, investors do not, and will not, have access to financial statements of borrowers or to other detailed financial information about borrowers. If investors invest in loans through our marketplace based on information supplied by borrowers that is inaccurate, misleading or incomplete, those investors may not receive their expected returns and our reputation may be harmed.

Fraudulent activity associated with our marketplace could negatively impact our operating results, brand and reputation and cause the use of our loan products and services to decrease and our fraud losses to increase.

We are subject to the risk of fraudulent activity associated with our marketplace, issuing banks, borrowers, investors and third parties handling borrower and investor information. Our resources, technologies and fraud prevention tools may be insufficient to accurately detect and prevent fraud. Under our agreements with investors, we are obligated to repurchase loans in cases of confirmed identity theft. The level of our fraud charge-offs and results of operations could be materially adversely affected if fraudulent activity were to significantly increase. High profile fraudulent activity or significant increases in fraudulent activity could lead to regulatory intervention, negatively impact our operating results, brand and reputation and lead us to take steps to reduce fraud risk, which could increase our costs.

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We rely on data from third parties for the successful operation of our platform.

Our ability to review and select qualified borrowers and sufficient investors depends on credit, identification, employment and other relevant information that we receive from third parties, including credit bureaus. If this information becomes unavailable or becomes more expensive to access, it could increase our costs as we seek alternative sources of information. If this third-party data is incorrect, our ability to identify qualified borrowers and investors or approve and price loans may suffer and our business may be harmed.

Fluctuations in interest rates could negatively affect transaction volume.

All personal and small business loans facilitated through our marketplace are issued with fixed interest rates, and education and patient finance loans facilitated by Springstone are issued with fixed or variable rates, depending on the type of loan. If interest rates rise, investors who have already committed capital may lose the opportunity to take advantage of the higher rates. Additionally, potential borrowers could seek to defer loans as they wait for interest rates to settle, and borrowers of variable rate loans through Springstone’s platform may be subject to increased interest rates. If interest rates decrease after a loan is made, borrowers through our marketplace may prepay their loans to take advantage of the lower rates. Investors through our marketplace would lose the opportunity to collect the above-market interest rate payable on the corresponding loan and may delay or reduce future loan investments. As a result, fluctuations in the interest rate environment may discourage investors and borrowers from participating in our marketplace and may reduce our loan originations, which may adversely affect our business.

If loan default rates are in excess of the expected default rates, we may be unable to collect our entire servicing fee.

Personal loans facilitated through our marketplace are not secured by any collateral, not guaranteed or insured by any third party and not backed by any governmental authority in any way. We are therefore limited in our ability to collect on the loans if a borrower is unwilling or unable to repay. A borrower’s ability to repay us can be negatively impacted by increases in their payment obligations to other lenders under mortgage, credit card and other loans, including student loans and home equity lines of credit. These changes can result from increases in base lending rates or structured increases in payment obligations and could reduce the ability of our borrowers to meet their payment obligations to other lenders and to us. If a borrower defaults on a loan, we typically outsource subsequent servicing efforts to third-party collection agencies, which may be unsuccessful in their efforts to collect the amount of the loan. Because our servicing fees depend on the collectability of the loans, if we experience an unexpected significant increase in the number of borrowers who fail to repay their loans or an increase in the principal amount of the loans that are not repaid, we will be unable to collect our entire servicing fee for such loans and our revenue could be adversely affected.

If we experience an increase in defaults on loans facilitated through our marketplace, the return on investment for investors in those loans would be adversely affected and investors may not find investing through our marketplace desirable.

We make payments ratably on an investor’s investment only if we receive the borrower’s payments on the corresponding loan. If we do not receive payments on the corresponding loan related to an investment, the investor will not be entitled to any payments under the terms of the investment. Further, investors may have to pay us an additional servicing fee of up to 35% of any amount recovered by our third-party collection agencies assigned to collect on the loan. An investor may become dissatisfied with our marketplace if a loan underlying its investment is not repaid and it does not receive full payment. As a result, our reputation may suffer and we may lose investor confidence, which could adversely affect investor participation on our marketplace.

Our business and operating results may be impacted by adverse economic conditions.

General economic factors and conditions in the United States or worldwide, including the general interest rate environment, unemployment rates and residential home values, may affect borrower willingness to seek loans and investor ability and desire to invest in loans. For example, during the 2008 financial crisis, banks

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severely constrained lending activities, which caused a decline in loan issuances. A similar crisis could negatively impact the willingness of investors and borrowers to participate on our marketplace. Although the U.S. and global economies have shown improvement, the recovery remains modest and uncertain. If present U.S. and global economic uncertainties persist, many of our investors may delay or reduce their investment in the loans facilitated through our marketplace. Adverse economic conditions could also reduce the number of individuals seeking to invest in loans facilitated on our marketplace, reduce the number of qualified borrowers seeking loans on our marketplace and result in borrowers being unable to make payments. Should any of these situations occur, our revenue and transactions on our marketplace would decline and our business would be negatively impacted.

Limited liquidity for investments facilitated through our marketplace may make these investments less attractive to investors.

No trading market currently exists for the certificates issued by the Trust or for the limited partnership interests issued by separate investment funds in which LC Advisors, LLC (LCA) acts as the general partner, each of which are privately placed. Note investors can only sell their notes through the resale trading platform operated by FOLIOfn Investments, Inc. (FOLIOfn), an unaffiliated registered broker-dealer. During 2013, it took an average of approximately four days to sell a note on FOLIOfn with an offer price at or below par. We cannot assure you that FOLIOfn will continue to maintain a market for the trading of notes or that another market may arise. Given the lack of liquidity for certificates and the limited liquidity for notes, investors and potential investors may consider these investments to be less appealing and demand for these investments may decrease, which may adversely affect our business.

Borrowers may prepay a loan at any time without penalty and investors may stop investing in loans, which could reduce our servicing or management fees.

A borrower may decide to prepay all or a portion of the remaining principal amount on a loan at any time without penalty. If the entire remaining unpaid principal amount of a loan is prepaid, we will not receive a servicing fee on the anticipated future loan payments and investors will not receive related payments. If a significant volume of prepayments occurs, investors may stop investing in loans and the amount of our servicing or management fees would decline, either of which could harm our business.

Our ability to protect the confidential information of our borrowers and investors may be adversely affected by cyber-attacks, computer viruses, physical or electronic break-ins or similar disruptions.

The highly automated nature of our marketplace may make it an attractive target and potentially vulnerable to cyber attacks, computer viruses, physical or electronic break-ins or similar disruptions. Our marketplace processes certain sensitive data from our borrowers and investors. While we have taken steps to protect confidential information that we have access to, our security measures could be breached. Any accidental or willful security breaches or other unauthorized access to our marketplace could cause confidential borrower and investor information to be stolen and used for criminal purposes. Security breaches or unauthorized access to confidential information could also expose us to liability related to the loss of the information, time-consuming and expensive litigation and negative publicity. If security measures are breached because of third-party action, employee error, malfeasance or otherwise, or if design flaws in our software are exposed and exploited, our relationships with borrowers and investors could be severely damaged, and we could incur significant liability.

Because techniques used to sabotage or obtain unauthorized access to systems change frequently and generally are not recognized until they are launched against a target, we and our third-party hosting facilities may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures. In addition, federal regulators and many federal and state laws and regulations require companies to notify individuals of data security breaches involving their personal data. These mandatory disclosures regarding a security breach are costly to implement and often lead to widespread negative publicity, which may cause borrowers and investors to lose confidence in the effectiveness of our data security measures. Any security breach, whether actual or perceived, would harm our reputation, we could lose borrowers, investors and ecosystem partners and our business and operations could be adversely affected.

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Any significant disruption in service on our platform or in our computer systems, including events beyond our control, could prevent us from processing or posting payments on loans, reduce the attractiveness of our marketplace and result in a loss of borrowers or investors.

In the event of a platform outage and physical data loss, our ability to perform our servicing obligations, process applications or make loans available on our marketplace would be materially and adversely affected. The satisfactory performance, reliability and availability of our technology and our underlying network infrastructure are critical to our operations, customer service, reputation and our ability to attract new and retain existing borrowers and investors. Much of our system hardware is hosted in a facility located in Las Vegas, Nevada that is owned and operated by SwitchNet. We also maintain a real-time backup system at a third-party owned and operated facility located in Santa Clara, California. Our operations depend on SwitchNet’s ability to protect its and our systems in their facilities against damage or interruption from natural disasters, power or telecommunications failures, air quality issues, environmental conditions, computer viruses or attempts to harm our systems, criminal acts and similar events. If our arrangement with SwitchNet is terminated or if there is a lapse of service or damage to SwitchNet facilities, we could experience interruptions in our service as well as delays and additional expense in arranging new facilities.

Any interruptions or delays in our service, whether as a result of third-party error, our error, natural disasters or security breaches, whether accidental or willful, could harm our relationships with our borrowers and investors and our reputation. Additionally, in the event of damage or interruption, our insurance policies may not adequately compensate us for any losses that we may incur. Our disaster recovery plan has not been tested under actual disaster conditions, and we may not have sufficient capacity to recover all data and services in the event of an outage. These factors could prevent us from processing or posting payments on the loans, damage our brand and reputation, divert our employees’ attention, reduce our revenue, subject us to liability and cause borrowers and investors to abandon our marketplace, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our business is subject to the risks of earthquakes, fire, power outages, floods and other catastrophic events, and to interruption by man-made problems such as strikes and terrorism.

A significant natural disaster, such as an earthquake, fire, power outage, flood or other catastrophic event, or interruptions by strikes, terrorism or other made-made problems, could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition. Our headquarters and our real-time disaster recovery data center are located in the San Francisco Bay Area, a region known for seismic activity. Despite any precautions we may take, the occurrence of a natural disaster or other unanticipated problems at our data centers could result in lengthy interruptions in our services. In addition, acts of strikes, terrorism and other geo-political unrest could cause disruptions in our business and lead to interruptions, delays or loss of critical data. All of the aforementioned risks may be further increased if our disaster recovery plans prove to be inadequate. We have implemented a disaster recovery program that allows us to move production to a back-up data center in the event of a catastrophe. Although this program is functional, we do not currently serve network traffic equally from each data center. If our primary data center shuts down, there will be a period of time that our loan products or services, or certain of our loan products or services, will remain inaccessible to our users or our users may experience severe issues accessing our loan products and services.

We do not currently maintain business interruption insurance to compensate us for potentially significant losses, including potential harm to our business that may result from interruptions in our ability to provide our loan products and services.

Our platform and internal systems rely on software that is highly technical, and if it contains undetected errors, our business could be adversely affected.

Our platform and internal systems rely on software that is highly technical and complex. In addition, our platform and internal systems depend on the ability of such software to store, retrieve, process and manage

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immense amounts of data. The software on which we rely has contained, and may now or in the future contain, undetected errors or bugs. Some errors may only be discovered after the code has been released for external or internal use. Errors or other design defects within the software on which we rely may result in a negative experience for borrowers and investors, delay introductions of new features or enhancements, result in errors or compromise our ability to protect borrower or investor data or our intellectual property. Any errors, bugs or defects discovered in the software on which we rely could result in harm to our reputation, loss of borrowers or investors, loss of revenue or liability for damages, any of which could adversely affect our business and financial results.

Misconduct and errors by our employees and third-party service providers could harm our business and reputation.

We are exposed to many types of operational risk, including the risk of misconduct and errors by our employees and other third-party service providers. Our business depends on our employees and third-party service providers to process a large number of increasingly complex transactions, including treasury transactions that involve significant dollar amounts and loan transactions that involve the use and disclosure of personal and business information. We could be materially adversely affected if treasury transactions were redirected, misappropriated or otherwise improperly executed, personal and business information was disclosed to unintended recipients or an operational breakdown or failure in the processing of other transactions occurred, whether as a result of human error, a purposeful sabotage or a fraudulent manipulation of our operations or systems. In addition, the manner in which we store and use certain personal information and interact with borrowers and investors is governed by various federal and state laws. If any of our employees or third-party service providers take, convert or misuse funds, documents or data or fail to follow protocol when interacting with borrowers and investors, we could be liable for damages and subject to regulatory actions and penalties. We could also be perceived to have facilitated or participated in the illegal misappropriation of funds, documents or data, or the failure to follow protocol, and therefore be subject to civil or criminal liability. It is not always possible to identify and deter misconduct or errors by employees or third-party service providers, and the precautions we take to detect and prevent this activity may not be effective in controlling unknown or unmanaged risks or losses. Any of these occurrences could result in our diminished ability to operate our business, potential liability to borrowers and investors, inability to attract future borrowers and investors, reputational damage, regulatory intervention and financial harm, which could negatively impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We may be sued by third parties for alleged infringement of their proprietary rights, which could harm our business.

Our success depends on not infringing on the intellectual property rights of others. Our competitors, as well as a number of other entities and individuals, may own or claim to own intellectual property relating to our industry. From time to time, third parties may claim that we are infringing on their intellectual property rights, and we may be found to be infringing on such rights. In the future, others may claim that our applications and underlying technology infringe or violate their intellectual property rights. We may, however, be unaware of the intellectual property rights that others may claim cover some or all of our technology or services. Any claims or litigation could cause us to incur significant expenses and, if successfully asserted against us, could require that we pay substantial damages or ongoing royalty payments, prevent us from offering our loan products or operating our platform or require that we comply with other unfavorable terms. We may also be obligated to indemnify parties or pay substantial settlement costs, including royalty payments, in connection with any such claim or litigation and to obtain licenses, modify applications or refund fees, which could be costly. Even if we were to prevail in such a dispute, any litigation regarding our intellectual property could be costly and time-consuming and divert the attention of our management and key personnel from our business operations.

Any failure to protect our own intellectual property rights could impair our brand, negatively impact our business or both.

Our success and ability to compete also depend in part on protecting our own intellectual property. We rely on a combination of copyright, trade secret, trademark and other rights, as well as confidentiality procedures and contractual

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provisions to protect our proprietary technology, processes and other intellectual property. However, the steps we take to protect our intellectual property rights may be inadequate. Third parties may seek to challenge, invalidate or circumvent our copyright, trade secret, trademark and other rights or applications for any of the foregoing. In order to protect our intellectual property rights, we may be required to spend significant resources. Litigation brought to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights could be costly, time-consuming and distracting to management and could result in the impairment or loss of portions of our intellectual property. Our failure to secure, protect and enforce our intellectual property rights could seriously adversely affect our brand and adversely impact our business.

Some aspects of our platform include open source software, and any failure to comply with the terms of one or more of these open source licenses could negatively affect our business.

Aspects of our platform include software covered by open source licenses, which may include, by way of example, GNU General Public License and the Apache License. The terms of various open source licenses have not been interpreted by U.S. courts, and there is a risk that such licenses could be construed in a manner that imposes unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our platform. If portions of our proprietary software are determined to be subject to an open source license, we could be required to publicly release the affected portions of our source code, re-engineer all or a portion of our technologies or otherwise be limited in the licensing of our technologies, each of which could reduce or eliminate the value of our technologies and loan products. In addition to risks related to license requirements, usage of open source software can lead to greater risks than use of third-party commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide warranties or controls on the origin of the software. Many of the risks associated with use of open source software cannot be eliminated, and could adversely affect our business.

If we fail to manage the integration of Springstone effectively, our results of operations and business could be harmed.

We are in the process of integrating Springstone into our business. Risks associated with any such integration include:

This integration may be difficult and unpredictable. We may invest resources in the acquisition and integration efforts would have been better utilized developing technology and loan products for our marketplace or on other strategic development initiatives.

Further, this acquisition may disrupt our ongoing operations, divert management’s attention from their primary responsibilities and our other strategic initiatives, subject us to additional liabilities, increase our expenses and otherwise adversely affect our business, financial condition, operating results and cash flows.

From time to time we may evaluate and potentially consummate acquisitions, which could require significant management attention, disrupt our business and adversely affect our financial results.

We may evaluate and consider strategic transactions, combinations, acquisitions or alliances to enhance our existing business or develop new loan products and services. These transactions could be material to our financial condition and results of operations if consummated. If we are able to identify an appropriate business opportunity, we may not be able to successfully consummate the transaction and, even if we do consummate such a transaction, we may be unable to obtain the benefits or avoid the difficulties and risks of such transaction.

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Any acquisition will involve risks commonly encountered in business relationships, including:

We may not make any acquisitions, or any future acquisitions may not be successful, may not benefit our business strategy, may not generate sufficient revenue to offset the associated acquisition costs or may not otherwise result in the intended benefits. In addition, we cannot assure you that any future acquisition of new businesses or technology will lead to the successful development of new or enhanced loan products and services or that any new or enhanced loan products and services, if developed, will achieve market acceptance or prove to be profitable.

Expanding our operations internationally could subject us to new challenges and risks.

Although we currently only operate in the United States, we may seek to expand our business internationally. Managing any international expansion will require additional resources and controls. Any expansion internationally could subject our business to risks associated with international operations, including:

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As a result of these risks, any potential future international expansion efforts that we may undertake may not be successful.

We have incurred substantial debt and may issue debt securities or otherwise incur substantial debt in the future, which may adversely affect our financial condition and negatively impact our operations.

We have in the past incurred, and may in the future incur, substantial debt. The incurrence of debt could have a variety of negative effects, including:

The occurrence of any of these risks could adversely affect our operations or financial condition.

Competition for our employees is intense, and we may not be able to attract and retain the highly skilled employees needed to support our business.

We believe our success depends on the efforts and talents of our employees, including software engineers, financial personnel and marketing professionals. Our future success depends on our continued ability to attract, develop, motivate and retain highly qualified and skilled employees. Competition for highly skilled technical and financial personnel, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area, is extremely intense. We may not be able to hire and retain these personnel at compensation levels consistent with our existing compensation and salary structure. Many of the companies with which we compete for experienced employees have greater resources than we have and may be able to offer more attractive terms of employment.

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In addition, we invest significant time and expense in training our employees, which increases their value to competitors who may seek to recruit them. If we fail to retain our employees, we could incur significant expenses in hiring and training their replacements, and the quality of our services and our ability to serve borrowers and investors could diminish, resulting in a material adverse effect on our business.

If we fail to retain our key personnel, we may not be able to achieve our anticipated level of growth and our business could suffer.

In addition to attracting and retaining highly skilled employees in general, our future performance depends, in part, on our ability to attract and retain key personnel, including our executive officers, senior management team and other key personnel, all of whom would be difficult to replace. In particular, Mr. Laplanche, our founder and Chief Executive Officer, is critical to the management of our business and operations and the development of our strategic direction. The loss of the services of Mr. Laplanche, our other executive officers or members of our senior management team, and the process to replace any of them, would involve significant time and expense and may significantly delay or prevent the achievement of our business objectives.

If we cannot maintain our corporate culture as we grow, we could lose the innovation, collaboration and focus that contribute to our business.

We believe that a critical component of our success is our corporate culture, which we believe fosters innovation, encourages teamwork and cultivates creativity. As we develop the infrastructure of a public company and continue to grow, we may find it difficult to maintain these valuable aspects of our corporate culture. Any failure to preserve our culture could negatively impact our future success, including our ability to attract and retain employees, encourage innovation and teamwork and effectively focus on and pursue our corporate objectives.

If we discover a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting that we are unable to remedy or otherwise fail to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting or disclosure controls and procedures, our ability to report our financial results on a timely and accurate basis and the market price of our common stock may be adversely affected.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (Sarbanes-Oxley Act) requires, among other things, that we maintain effective internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures. Although we did not discover any material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting at December 31, 2013, subsequent testing by us or our independent registered public accounting firm, which has not performed an audit of our internal control over financial reporting, may reveal deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses. To comply with Section 404A, we may incur substantial cost, expend significant management time on compliance-related issues and hire additional accounting, financial and internal audit staff with appropriate public company experience and technical accounting knowledge. Moreover, if we are not able to comply with the requirements of Section 404A in a timely manner or if we or our independent registered public accounting firm identify deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses, we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or other regulatory authorities, which would require additional financial and management resources. Any failure to maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures or internal control over financial reporting could have a material adverse effect on our business and operating results, and cause a decline in the price of our common stock.

Our ability to use our deferred tax assets to offset future taxable income may be subject to certain limitations that could subject our business to higher tax liability.

We may be limited in the portion of net operating loss carryforwards that we can use in the future to offset taxable income for U.S. federal and state income tax purposes. At December 31, 2013, we had federal and state net operating loss carry-forwards (NOLs) of approximately $43.9 million and $40.7 million, respectively, to offset future taxable income. These federal and state net operating loss carry-forwards will begin expiring in 2027 and 2016, respectively. A lack of future taxable income would adversely affect our ability to utilize these

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NOLs. In addition, under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (Code), a corporation that undergoes an “ownership change” is subject to limitations on its ability to utilize its NOLs to offset future taxable income. Future changes in our stock ownership, including this or future offerings, as well as other changes that may be outside of our control, could result in additional ownership changes under Section 382 of the Code. Our NOLs may also be impaired under similar provisions of state law. Additionally, at December 31, 2013, we had federal and state research and development tax credit carry-forwards of approximately $0.6 million and $0.5 million, respectively. We assess the available positive and negative evidence to estimate if sufficient future taxable income will be generated to utilize the existing deferred tax assets. On the basis of this evaluation, a full valuation allowance has historically been recorded to recognize only deferred tax assets that are more likely than not to be realized. Our deferred tax assets may expire unutilized or underutilized, which could prevent us from offsetting future taxable income.

Risks Related to Compliance and Regulation

We and our issuing bank partners are subject to borrower protection laws and federal and state consumer protection laws.

We and our issuing bank partners must comply with regulatory regimes, including those applicable to consumer credit transactions, various aspects of which are untested as applied to our marketplace. Certain state laws generally regulate interest rates and other charges and require certain disclosures. In addition, other federal and state laws may apply to the origination and servicing of loans originated through our marketplace. In particular, through our marketplace, we may be subject to laws, such as:

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We may not always have been, and may not always be, in compliance with these laws. Compliance with these laws is also costly, time-consuming and limits our operational flexibility.

Failure to comply with these laws and regulatory requirements applicable to our business may, among other things, limit our or a collection agency’s ability to collect all or part of the principal of or interest on loans. As a result, we may not be able to collect our servicing fee with respect to the uncollected principal or interest, and investors may be discouraged from investing in loans. In addition, non-compliance could subject us to damages, revocation of required licenses, class action lawsuits, administrative enforcement actions, rescission rights held by investors in securities offerings and civil and criminal liability, which may harm our business and our ability to maintain our marketplace and may result in borrowers rescinding their loans.

Where applicable, we will seek to comply with state small loan, loan broker, servicing and similar statutes. Currently, we do not facilitate loans to borrowers in Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Nebraska and North Dakota. In all other U.S. jurisdictions with licensing or other requirements that we believe may be applicable to us, we comply with the relevant requirements through the operation of our marketplace with issuing banks or we will be seeking to obtain required licenses. Nevertheless, if we are found to not comply with applicable laws, we could lose one or more of our licenses or authorizations or face other sanctions or be required to obtain a license in such jurisdiction, which may have an adverse effect on our ability to continue to facilitate loans through our marketplace, perform our servicing obligations or make our marketplace available to borrowers in particular states, which may harm our business.

If our marketplace was found to violate a state’s usury laws, we may have to alter our business model and our business could be harmed.

The interest rates that are charged to borrowers and that form the basis of payments to investors through our marketplace are based upon the ability under federal law of the issuing bank that originates the loan to export the interest rates of its jurisdiction of incorporation to provide uniform rates to all borrowers in all states that have not opted out. WebBank, our primary issuing bank, exports the interest rates of Utah, which allows parties to generally agree by contract to any interest rate. The current annual percentage rates offered by WebBank through our marketplace for personal loans range from 6.78% to 29.99%, which equate to interest rates for investors that range from 6.03% to 26.06%. Of the forty-six jurisdictions whose residents may obtain loans (including the District of Columbia), certain states, including Utah, have no statutory interest rate limitations on personal loans, while other jurisdictions have a maximum rate less than the current maximum rate offered by WebBank through our platform. If a borrower were to successfully bring claims against us for state usury law violations, and the rate on that borrower’s personal loan was greater than that allowed under applicable state law, we could be subject to fines and penalties. Further, if we were unable to partner with another issuing bank, we would have to substantially modify our business operations from the manner currently contemplated and would be required to maintain state-specific licenses and only provide a limited range of interest rates for personal loans, all of which would substantially reduce our operating efficiency and attractiveness to investors and possibly result in a decline in our operating results.

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Several lawsuits have sought to re-characterize certain loan marketers and other originators as lenders. If litigation on similar theories were successful against us, loans facilitated through our marketplace could be subject to state consumer protection laws in a greater number of states.

Several lawsuits have brought under scrutiny the association between high-interest “payday loan” marketers and out-of-state banks. These lawsuits assert that payday loan marketers use out-of-state lenders in order to evade the consumer protection laws imposed by the states where they do business. Such litigation has sought to re-characterize the loan marketer as the lender for purposes of state consumer protection law and usury restrictions. Similar civil actions have been brought in the context of gift cards and retail purchase finance. Although we believe that our activities are generally distinguishable from the activities involved in these cases, a court or regulatory authority could disagree.

Additional state consumer protection laws would be applicable to the loans facilitated through our marketplace if we were re-characterized as a lender, and the loans could be voidable or unenforceable. In addition, we could be subject to claims by borrowers, as well as enforcement actions by regulators. Even if we were not required to cease doing business with residents of certain states or to change our business practices to comply with applicable laws and regulations, we could be required to register or obtain licenses or regulatory approvals that could impose a substantial cost on us.

The increased scrutiny of third-party medical financing by governmental agencies may lead to increased regulatory burdens on Springstone and adversely affect our consolidated revenue or results of operations.

Springstone, through its issuing bank partners, provides education and patient finance loans, including for elective medical procedures. Recently, regulators increased scrutiny of third-party providers of financing for medical procedures that are generally not covered by health insurance. For example, in December 2013, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) fined GE Capital Retail Bank $34.1 million for insufficient training, disclosures and practices related to their medical financing services. In addition, attorneys general in New York and Minnesota have conducted investigations on alleged abusive lending practices or exploitation regarding third-party medical financing services.

In June 2014, Springstone received a civil investigative demand from the CFPB for documents and other tangible items related to its programs that provide healthcare financing. If Springstone’s practices are ultimately found to be deficient, resulting in fines, penalties or increased burdens on Springstone’s activities, our consolidated operating costs could increase. Additionally, such regulatory inquiries or actions could damage Springstone’s and our reputations and limit Springstone’s ability to conduct operations, which could adversely affect our consolidated financial statements.

The adoption of any law, rule or regulation affecting this industry may also increase Springstone’s administrative costs, modify its practices to comply with applicable requirements and reduce its ability to participate competitively, which could have a material adverse effect on our consolidated revenue or results of operations.

The CFPB is a new agency, and there continues to be uncertainty as to how the agency’s actions or the actions of any other new agency could impact our business or that of our issuing banks.

The CFPB, which commenced operations in July 2011, has broad authority over the businesses in which we engage. This includes authority to write regulations under federal consumer financial protection laws, such as the Truth in Lending Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, and to enforce those laws against and examine large financial institutions, such as our issuing banks, for compliance. The CFPB is authorized to prevent “unfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practices” through its regulatory, supervisory and enforcement authority. To assist in its enforcement, the CFPB maintains an online complaint system that allows consumers to log complaints with respect to various consumer finance products, including the loan products we facilitate. This system could inform future CFPB decisions with respect to its regulatory, enforcement or examination focus.

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We are subject to the CFPB’s jurisdiction, including its enforcement authority, as a servicer and acquirer of consumer credit. The CFPB may request reports concerning our organization, business conduct, markets and activities. The CFPB may also conduct on-site examinations of our business on a periodic basis if the CFPB were to determine, through its complaint system, that we were engaging in activities that pose risks to consumers.

There continues to be uncertainty as to how the CFPB’s strategies and priorities, including in both its examination and enforcement processes, will impact our businesses and our results of operations going forward. Actions by the CFPB could result in requirements to alter or cease offering affected loan products and services, making them less attractive and restricting our ability to offer them.

Although we have committed resources to enhancing our compliance programs, actions by the CFPB or other regulators against us, our issuing banks or our competitors that discourage the use of the marketplace model or suggest to consumers the desirability of other loan products or services could result in reputational harm and a loss of borrowers or investors. Our compliance costs and litigation exposure could increase materially if the CFPB or other regulators enact new regulations, change regulations that were previously adopted, modify, through supervision or enforcement, past regulatory guidance, or interpret existing regulations in a manner different or stricter than have been previously interpreted.

The collection, processing, storage, use and disclosure of personal data could give rise to liabilities as a result of governmental regulation, conflicting legal requirements or differing views of personal privacy rights.

We receive, transmit and store a large volume of personally identifiable information and other user data. There are federal, state and foreign laws regarding privacy and the storing, sharing, use, disclosure and protection of personally identifiable information and user data. Specifically, personally identifiable information is increasingly subject to legislation and regulations in numerous U.S. and international jurisdictions, the intent of which is to protect the privacy of personal information that is collected, processed and transmitted in or from the governing jurisdiction. This regulatory framework for privacy issues worldwide is currently evolving and is likely to remain uncertain for the foreseeable future. We could be adversely affected if legislation or regulations are expanded to require changes in business practices or privacy policies, or if governing jurisdictions interpret or implement their legislation or regulations in ways that negatively affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our failure to comply with applicable privacy policies or federal, state or foreign laws and regulations or any compromise of security that results in the unauthorized release of personally identifiable information or other user data could damage our reputation, discourage potential borrowers or investors from using our marketplace or result in fines or proceedings brought against us, our issuing banks or other third parties by governmental agencies, borrowers, investors or other third parties, one or all of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition to laws, regulations and other applicable common law rules regarding privacy and privacy advocacy, industry groups or other private parties may propose new and different privacy standards. We could also be subject to liability for the inappropriate use of information made available by us. Because the interpretation and application of privacy and data protection laws and privacy standards are still uncertain, it is possible that these laws or privacy standards may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent with our practices. Any inability to adequately address privacy concerns, even if unfounded, or to comply with applicable privacy or data protection laws, regulations and privacy standards, could result in additional cost and liability for us, damage our reputation, inhibit use of our marketplace and harm our business.

We will incur significantly increased costs and devote substantial management time as a result of the listing of our common stock.

Although we have been a reporting company under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (Exchange Act), since 2008, we will incur additional legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not incur as a private reporting company. For example, we will be required to comply with additional requirements of the rules and regulations of the SEC and requirements of the New York Stock Exchange, including applicable

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corporate governance practices. We expect that compliance with these requirements will increase our legal and financial compliance costs and will make some activities more time consuming and costly. In addition, we expect that our management and other personnel will need to divert attention from operational and other business matters to devote substantial time to these public company requirements. We cannot predict or estimate the amount of additional costs we may incur as a result of becoming a public company or the timing of such costs.

In addition, changing laws, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure are creating uncertainty for public companies, increasing legal and financial compliance costs and making some activities more time-consuming. These laws, regulations and standards are subject to varying interpretations, in many cases due to their lack of specificity, and, as a result, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance is provided by regulatory and governing bodies. This could result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and higher costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to disclosure and governance practices. We intend to invest resources to comply with evolving laws, regulations and standards, and this investment may result in increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management’s time and attention from revenue-generating activities to compliance activities. If our efforts to comply with new laws, regulations and standards differ from the activities intended by regulatory or governing bodies due to ambiguities related to their application and practice, regulatory authorities may initiate legal proceedings against us and our business may be adversely affected.

Our ability to offer our notes depends upon our compliance with requirements under federal or state securities laws.

All notes publicly offered through our marketplace are offered and sold pursuant to a registration statement filed with the SEC. We also qualify as a “well-known seasoned issuer,” which allows us to file automatically effective registration statements with the SEC. Under SEC rules, for certain material updates, we must file post-effective amendments, which, if we do not qualify as a “well-known seasoned issuer,” do not become effective until declared effective by the SEC. We may fail to maintain our “well-known seasoned issuer” status if we do not file SEC reports on a timely manner or for other reasons. In addition, if we fail to file our annual reports on Form 10-K or quarterly reports on Form 10-Q on a timely basis or are otherwise required to suspend use of a registration statement for the notes, we could be required to suspend offering of our notes until such deficiency is resolved. Because we offer notes on a continuous basis, securities law restrictions may also limit our ability to market or advertise to potential investors.

We are also currently required to register or qualify for an exemption in every state in which we offer securities. Qualification in a state can be a time-consuming process, often requiring periodic renewals. Failure to timely renew these registrations may require us to pay penalties, suspend further offerings until we regain compliance and make rescission offers in connection with previously completed investments. Certain states also impose special suitability standards and other conditions for operation in their states, restricting the persons and conditions under which we may make offerings in these states. We do not offer our notes in all states due to the restrictions of certain states. While we believe that upon the completion of this offering we may rely on federal preemption of state registration and qualification requirements, states may interpret federal law as applied to our notes differently, possibly requiring us to continue to make filings in or limit operations in those states. Regardless of any such registration, qualification or preemption, we are subject to both state and federal antifraud rules of each state in which we operate. Although we seek to verify information provided to us by borrowers, we cannot verify all such information and may be liable for any material misstatements or omissions in such information received from borrowers or from other third parties.

As a result of these requirements, actual or alleged non-compliance with federal or state laws or changes in federal or state law or regulatory policy or could limit our ability to offer notes in certain states, require us to pay fines or penalties, or curtail our operations.

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We may have to constrain our business activities to avoid being deemed an investment company under the Investment Company Act.

In general, a company that is or holds itself out as being engaged primarily in the business of investing, reinvesting or trading in securities may be deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (Investment Company Act). The Investment Company Act contains substantive legal requirements that regulate the manner in which “investment companies” are permitted to conduct their business activities. We believe we have conducted, and we intend to continue to conduct, our business in a manner that does not result in our company being characterized as an investment company. To avoid being deemed an investment company, we may not be able to broaden our offerings, which could require us to forego attractive opportunities. We also plan to apply for formal exemptive relief to provide additional clarity on our status under the Investment Company Act. We may not receive such relief on a timely basis, if at all, and such relief may require us to modify or curtail our operations. If we are deemed to be an investment company under the Investment Company Act, we may be required to institute burdensome compliance requirements and our activities may be restricted, which would materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

If our registered investment advisor, LC Advisors, LLC, were found to have violated the Investment Advisers Act, our ability to raise sufficient investor commitments to meet borrower demand could be impaired.

Our subsidiary LCA acts as an advisor to certain private funds and accredited investors, including those that invest in managed accounts that rely on a third-party adviser or manager to manage their investment through our marketplace. Registered investment advisers are subject to a number of regulatory and legal requirements, including conflicts of interest, advertising restrictions and custody requirements. We believe we have conducted, and we intend to continue to conduct, the business of LCA in substantial compliance with the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as amended (Investment Advisers Act) and applicable fiduciary duties. If, however, we are deemed to have breached any of our obligations under the Investment Advisers Act, the activities of LCA could be restricted, suspended or even terminated. If this were to occur, our ability to provide investors with the opportunity to invest through managed accounts could be severely curtailed, and we may not be able to sufficiently meet borrower and investor demand for loans, which could harm our business.

If we were required to register as a broker-dealer under federal or state law, our costs could significantly increase or our operations could be impaired.

The securities offered to investors are offered directly by us. We do not operate as a registered broker-dealer in any jurisdiction. Although we do not believe we are obligated to do so, if a regulatory body were to find that our activities require us to register as a broker-dealer or to sell the investment securities only through a registered broker-dealer, we could be subject to fines, rescission offers or other penalties, and our compliance costs and other costs of operation could increase significantly. Further, our ability to issue and distribute the securities could be significantly impaired or curtailed.

Because we may have issued stock options and underlying shares of common stock in violation of federal and state securities laws, we may be required to offer to repurchase those securities and incur other costs.

We have been a reporting company under the Exchange Act since October 2008. As a result, subsequent to that time, we were no longer entitled to rely on the exemption provided under Rule 701 under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (Securities Act), and other exemptions from state securities laws for grants of certain equity awards to, and exercises of such awards by, some of our employees, directors and consultants. Therefore, it is possible that some current or former employees, directors and consultants could assert that the options and issuance of shares prior to filing our Form S-8 in July 2014 may have violated U.S. federal and state securities laws, and that such persons could have the right to require us to repurchase those securities.

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In connection with such issuances of options and shares, we were recently required by the California Department of Business Oversight (Department) to undertake a rescission offer in accordance with applicable California securities laws to (i) grantees of options to purchase shares of common stock and (ii) to stockholders who acquired their shares of common stock upon exercise of stock options, each during the past two years. Once the Department approves our application, we intend to register this rescission offer on a separate registration statement on Form S-1. Eligible participants in this rescission offer might not accept our offer. The weighted average option exercise price for eligible option grants in respect of 39,480,568 shares was $3.68 per share, and the weighted average purchase price for sales of 3,593,295 shares was $0.79 per share. As it is unclear if a rescission offer under federal securities laws will terminate a purchaser’s right to rescind a transaction that was not registered or exempt from such registration requirements, we may be required to honor such rescission rights in future periods. Our aggregate liability may be up to $31.9 million. We believe that any remedies a person might have after the rescission offer expires would not be greater than the amount that person would have received in the rescission offer.

We have not reviewed our compliance with foreign laws regarding the participation of non-U.S. residents on our marketplace.

From time to time, non-U.S. residents invest in loans directly through our marketplace. Through September 30, 2014, the percentage of notes purchased (based upon dollar amounts) by such persons since inception was less than 2% of all loans issued. We are not experts with respect to all applicable laws in the various foreign jurisdictions, and we cannot be sure that we are complying with applicable foreign laws. Failure to comply with such laws could result in fines and penalties payable by us, which could reduce our profitability or cause us to modify or delay planned expansions and expenditures, including investments in our growth. In addition, any such fines and penalties could create negative publicity, result in additional regulatory oversight that could limit our operations and ability to succeed, or otherwise hinder our plans to expand our business internationally.

Recent legislative and regulatory initiatives have imposed restrictions and requirements on financial institutions that could have an adverse effect on our business.

The Dodd-Frank Act and other legislation and regulations relating to financial institutions and markets, including alternative asset management funds, has resulted in increased oversight and taxation. There has been, and may continue to be, a related increase in regulatory investigations of the trading and other investment activities of alternative investment funds. Such investigations may impose additional expenses by us, may require the attention of senior management and may result in fines if any of our funds are deemed to have violated any regulations.

The Dodd-Frank Act is extensive and significant legislation that, among other things:

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With respect to the new liquidation framework for systemically important entities, we cannot assure you that such framework would not apply to us. Guidance from the FDIC indicates that such new framework will largely be exercised in a manner consistent with the existing bankruptcy laws, which is the insolvency regime that would otherwise apply to us. The SEC has proposed significant changes to the rules applicable to issuers and sponsors of asset-backed securities under the Securities Act and the Exchange Act. With the proposed changes, our access to the asset-backed securities capital markets could be affected and our financing programs could be less effective. Compliance with such legislation or regulation may significantly increase our costs, limit our product offerings and operating flexibility, require significant adjustments in our internal business processes and potentially require us to maintain our regulatory capital at levels above historical practices.

As the regulatory framework for our business evolves, federal and state governments may draft and propose new laws to regulate online marketplaces such as ours, which may negatively affect our business.

The regulatory framework for Internet commerce, including online marketplaces such as ours, is evolving, and it is possible that new laws and regulations will be adopted in the United States and internationally, or existing laws and regulations may be interpreted in new ways, that would affect the operation of our marketplace and the way in which we interact with borrowers and investors. The cost to comply with such laws or regulations could be significant and would increase our operating expenses, and we may be unable to pass those costs on to our borrowers and investors in the form of increased fees. In addition, federal and state governmental or regulatory agencies may decide to impose taxes on services provided over the Internet or by online marketplaces. These taxes could discourage the use of our marketplace, which would adversely affect the viability of our business.

Risks Related to Our Initial Public Offering and Ownership of Our Common Stock

The stock price of our common stock may be volatile or may decline regardless of our operating performance.

The market price of our common stock may fluctuate significantly in response to numerous factors, many of which are beyond our control, including:

In the past, stockholders have filed securities class action litigation following periods of market volatility. If we were to become involved in securities litigation, it could subject us to substantial costs, divert resources and the attention of management from our business and adversely affect our business.

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Substantial blocks of our total outstanding shares may be sold into the market when “lock-up” or “market standoff” periods end. If there are substantial sales of shares of our common stock, the price of our common stock could decline.

The price of our common stock could decline if there are substantial sales of our common stock, particularly sales by our directors, executive officers and significant stockholders, or if there is a large number of shares of our common stock available for sale. Upon completion of this offering, we will have outstanding              shares of common stock, based on the number of shares outstanding as of September 30, 2014. All of the shares of common stock sold in this offering will be available for sale in the public market. Substantially all of our security holders have entered into market standoff agreements with us restricting the sale of any shares of our common stock or will enter into lock-up agreements with the underwriters under which they will agree, subject to certain exceptions, not to sell any shares of our common stock until at least 180 days after the date of this prospectus, as described in “Shares Eligible for Future Sale.” Shares held by directors, executive officers and other affiliates will be subject to volume limitations under Rule 144 under the Securities Act and various vesting agreements. Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC may, in its discretion, permit our stockholders to sell shares prior to the expiration of the restrictive provisions contained in these lock-up agreements.

After our initial public offering, certain of our stockholders will have rights, subject to some conditions, to require us to file registration statements covering their shares that we may file for ourselves or our stockholders. All of these shares are subject to market standoff or lock-up agreements restricting their sale until at least 180 days after the date of this prospectus. In addition, shares issued or issuable upon exercise of options or warrants vested as of the expiration of the lock-up agreements will be eligible for sale at that time.

The price of our common stock could decline as a result of the sale of a substantial number of shares of common stock in the public market or the perception in the market that the holders of a large number of shares intend to sell their shares.

There has been no prior market for our common stock and an active market may not develop or be sustained, and you may not be able to resell your shares at or above the initial public offering price, if at all.

There has been no public market for our common stock prior to this offering. The initial public offering price for our common stock will be determined through negotiations among the underwriters, the selling stockholders and us and may vary from the market price of our common stock following this offering. If you purchase shares of our common stock in this offering, you may not be able to resell those shares at or above the initial public offering price. An active or liquid market in our common stock may not develop upon completion of this offering or, if it does develop, it may not be sustainable, which could adversely affect your ability to sell your shares and could depress the market price of our common stock.

We may invest or spend the net proceeds to us from this offering in ways with which you may not agree or in ways which may not yield a return or increase the price of our common stock.

We intend to use the net proceeds to us from this offering for general corporate purposes, including working capital, operating expenses and capital expenditures. We may also use a portion of the net proceeds to us to repay indebtedness outstanding under our term loan. Additionally, we may use a portion of the net proceeds to us to acquire businesses, products, services or assets. We do not, however, have agreements or commitments for any material acquisitions at this time. Our management will have discretion in the application of the net proceeds to us from this offering, and you will not have the opportunity, as part of your investment decision, to assess whether the net proceeds to us are being used appropriately. Until the net proceeds to us are used, they may be placed in investments that do not yield a favorable return. See “Use of Proceeds.”

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Our directors, executive officers and principal stockholders will continue to have substantial control over us after this offering and could delay or prevent a change in corporate control.

Upon the completion of this offering, our directors, executive officers and holders of more than 5% of our common stock, together with their affiliates, will beneficially own, in the aggregate,     % of our outstanding common stock. As a result, these stockholders, acting together, would have the ability to control the outcome of matters submitted to our stockholders for approval, including the election of directors and any merger, consolidation or sale of all or substantially all of our assets. In addition, these stockholders, acting together, would have the ability to control the management and affairs of our company.

If you purchase shares of our common stock in this offering, you will experience substantial and immediate dilution.

If you purchase shares of our common stock in this offering, you will experience substantial and immediate dilution of $         per share, based on the assumed initial public offering price of $         per share, which is the midpoint of the offering price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, because the price that you pay will be substantially greater than the pro forma net tangible book value per share of the common stock that you acquire. This dilution is due in large part to the fact that our earlier investors paid substantially less than the initial public offering price when they purchased their shares of capital stock. You will experience additional dilution upon exercise of options to purchase common stock under our equity incentive plans or if we otherwise issue additional shares of our common stock. See “Dilution.”

We may require additional capital to support business growth, and this capital might not be available on acceptable terms, if at all.

We intend to continue to make investments to support our business growth and may require additional funds to respond to business challenges, including the need to develop new loan products or enhance our marketplace, improve our operating infrastructure or acquire complementary businesses and technologies. Accordingly, we may need to engage in equity or debt financings to secure additional funds. If we raise additional funds through future issuances of equity or convertible debt securities, our existing stockholders could suffer significant dilution, and any new equity securities we issue could have rights, preferences and privileges superior to those of our common stock. Any debt financing we secure in the future could involve restrictive covenants relating to our capital raising activities and other financial and operational matters, which may make it more difficult for us to obtain additional capital and to pursue business opportunities, including potential acquisitions. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us when we require it, our ability to continue to support our business growth and to respond to business challenges could be impaired and our business may be harmed.

We do not intend to pay dividends for the foreseeable future.

We have never declared or paid cash dividends on our capital stock. We currently intend to retain any future earnings to finance the operation and expansion of our business, and we do not expect to declare or pay any dividends for the foreseeable future.

Anti-takeover provisions in our charter documents and Delaware law may delay or prevent an acquisition of our company.

Our restated certificate of incorporation and restated bylaws, as we expect they will be in effect upon the completion of this offering, contain provisions that may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change in control of us or changes in our management. The provisions, among other things:

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These provisions, alone or together, could delay or prevent hostile takeovers and changes in control or changes in our management.

In addition, because we are incorporated in Delaware, we are governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, which limits the ability of stockholders owning in excess of 15% of our outstanding voting stock to merge or combine with us in certain circumstances.

Any provision of our restated certificate of incorporation or restated bylaws, as we expect they will be in effect upon the completion of this offering, or Delaware law that has the effect of delaying or deterring a change in control could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a premium for their shares of our common stock, and could also affect the price that some investors are willing to pay for our common stock.

In making your investment decision, you should not rely on information in public media that is published by third parties. You should rely only on statements made in this prospectus in determining whether to purchase our shares.

You should carefully evaluate all of the information in this prospectus. We have in the past received, and may continue to receive, a high degree of media coverage, including coverage that is not directly attributable to statements made by our officers and employees. We cannot confirm the accuracy of such coverage. You should rely only on the information contained in this prospectus in determining whether to purchase our shares of common stock.

If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or reports about our business or publish negative reports about our business, our share price and trading volume could decline, or if they change their recommendations regarding our stock adversely, our stock price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our common stock will depend, to some extent, on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. We do not have any control over these analysts. If one or more of the analysts who may in the future cover us downgrade our shares or change their opinion of our shares, our share price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of us or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which could cause our share price or trading volume to decline.

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If we were to become subject to a bankruptcy or similar proceeding, the right of payment of investors in our notes may be senior to the right of payment of our stockholders and there may not be value recoverable by our stockholders.

Under the terms of the notes offered through our marketplace, we are obligated to pay principal and interest on each note on a non-recourse basis only if and to the extent that we receive principal, interest or late fee payments from the borrower on the corresponding loan, but the notes become fully recourse to us if we fail to pay such obligation, which would include being prohibited from making such payments as a result of a bankruptcy or similar proceeding, or if we breach a covenant under the indenture governing the notes. In a bankruptcy or similar proceeding due to a default under current or future indebtedness, an action for repurchase or rescission of securities or other event, there is uncertainty regarding whether a holder of a note has any right of payment from our assets other than the corresponding loan. It is possible that a note holder could be deemed to have a right of payment from both the corresponding loan and from some or all of our other assets, in which case the note holder would have a claim to the proceeds of our assets that is senior to any right of payment of the holders of our common stock, regardless of whether we have received any payments from the underlying borrower, making it highly unlikely that there would be any value recoverable by our stockholders.

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LETTER FROM RENAUD LAPLANCHE

I believe Lending Club has the potential to profoundly improve people’s financial lives over the coming decades. Our mission of transforming the banking system is both audacious and achievable. Technology has successfully disrupted many industries to the benefit of society at large, and I believe banking is next.

It all started in the summer of 2006 when I opened a credit card statement charging me a 16.99% interest rate, and a savings account statement from the same bank where I was earning a 0.48% interest rate on my deposits. The extreme difference between these two rates – one paid by me to the bank and the other paid by the bank to me – made me wonder whether the existing banking system was indeed the most efficient mechanism to allocate capital from savers and depositors into the hands of people and businesses looking for affordable credit. At that point, I considered the idea that an online marketplace could be a far more cost-efficient solution. Now, with a seven-year track record and billions of dollars of credit extended, we have clear evidence that our platform delivers extraordinary value and a considerably better experience to borrowers and investors than traditional banks.

Affordable capital provides more financial flexibility to consumers and gives small businesses an opportunity to drive growth and create jobs. Our model furthermore lowers systemic risk, because our marketplace has at all times a perfect match of assets and liabilities: loans and investments are in equal amount and identical terms at any point in time.

I believe we can transform the current banking system into a frictionless, transparent and highly efficient online marketplace that provides affordable credit to borrowers and creates great investment opportunities for investors, helping millions of people achieve their financial goals.

Cutting out the Middleman

To understand the transformation we are proposing, it is useful to understand the way banks operate today. A bank can be summarized as a combination of operations and capital. Operations are performed through thousands of branches staffed by tens of thousands of employees, while capital comes from deposits and borrowed money. When a bank takes deposits and then later extends a loan using those deposits, it acts as an intermediary. An online marketplace directly and simultaneously accessible to both borrowers and investors essentially cuts out the middleman and lowers intermediation costs.

Building Confidence

We are not only bringing cost efficiency to the credit markets but also a more transparent and customer-friendly experience. Unlike traditional banks, we do not build confidence by establishing a branch at every street corner. Instead, we earn the trust of our customers by offering maximum transparency into our products’ terms and performance.

We offer responsible credit products with a fixed rate, fixed monthly payment, no prepayment penalty and no hidden fees, at a lower interest rate than prevailing alternatives, and disclose all terms upfront in a manner that is easy for borrowers to understand.

We have established investor confidence by demonstrating the effectiveness of our risk ranking technology, as well as through the accuracy, transparency and granularity of our reporting. We post on our platform the detailed performance of every single loan offered publicly to investors since inception, along with more aggregated performance statistics.

We are continuing to earn investor confidence every day by providing equal access and with a level playing field with the same tools, data and access for all investors, small and large, within a fair and efficient marketplace.

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People and Technology Matter

The idea of people lending money to other people is not new – it goes back thousands of years and predates the banks. We are now able to advance that idea and implement it at scale given technological innovation, processing capabilities, the evolution of consumer behavior and the greater availability of online data. Our platform allows investors to diversify their investment across hundreds or thousands of loans within seconds. That same technology enables us to service loans at a lower cost and distribute millions of payments each day to borrowers and investors in a seamless manner.

While we build highly sophisticated and complex products, we strive to shelter our customers from that complexity and make our products intuitive and easy to use.

As important and sophisticated as our technology is, Lending Club would not be what it is today without the hundreds of team members and their devotion to delivering a great customer experience. Our team is passionate about innovation and energized by our mission. We have created a culture that fosters learning and innovation, and encourages team members to constantly question the status quo and relentlessly drive improvements. Everything from our recruiting process to our operating mechanisms and the way our workspace is designed encourages open communication, collaboration and innovation.

It Feels Good to Share

The sharing economy that emerged after the 2008 financial crisis was initially motivated by financial considerations and the economic efficiency derived from putting underutilized assets to better use. I believe the sharing economy has now given birth to a socially desirable way of life that is gaining ground in every aspect of our lives from transportation and hospitality to financial transactions, with money being one of the most underutilized assets. I believe the reason our users choose Lending Club goes beyond the desire to obtain a better deal or a better experience than they’re getting from their bank. There is strong satisfaction in investing in people and having them invest in you.

The Long Run

Over time we plan to address a wide range of credit needs for a broad population of consumers and businesses globally. We are building a very big company and it’s going to take a very long time.

Transforming the banking system will not happen overnight, and we will not do it alone. We are building a large ecosystem of partners and marketplace participants and are planning to lead the transformation over the span of a decade or two. There are over 6,000 banks in the United States; I believe many of them will join our ecosystem and participate in the transformation, guided by a desire to operate more efficiently and better serve their customers. Some may resist but the history of technology-powered innovation has shown how unlikely it is for incumbents to successfully lower their cost structure and enhance their customer experience to the level of a technology disruptor like Lending Club.

As we go through the important milestone of offering our shares to the public, I am hoping to build long term relationships with shareholders who believe in our mission, share our long term perspective, and are excited at the prospect of transforming an industry in dire need of transformation. As a public company, I believe we will be even better positioned to continue to deliver great value to both investors and borrowers, make credit more affordable and fuel economic growth and prosperity.

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