South Africa firm starts social lending site
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - AngelMoola Ltd, a private South African company, has started an online social lending service as an alternative for people rattled by turmoil in the traditional financial sector, it said on Thursday.
CEO Brian Dalton said the company aimed to attract 4.32 billion rand ($467.9 million) in funds within a year by allowing South Africans to borrow and lend money to each other on the Internet instead of using conventional bank methods.
"We've set a figure of around 360 million rand a month (as a target), over the next 12 months," Dalton told Reuters in an interview.
"From a lender perspective, the stock markets are a bit of a wobbly, shaky deal at the moment, so people are looking for something a bit more secure to put their money into, and that's why this is probably a good option for them."
Dalton said AngelMoola, which is the first online social lending exchange in Africa, plans to expand into Zimbabwe, Botswana and Mozambique, and it aims to list on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange Alt-X segment in the next three years.
Its pilot website www.angelmoola.co.za had around 5,500 hits in the first week when it was launched in May. Social lending sites have already started in some other countries, including the United States and Japan.
(Reporting by Serena Chaudhry; Editing by Quentin Bryar)
