Lending Club’s $5.4 billion initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange is more than just the largest IPO for a U.S.-based tech company this year, it’s also planting the flag for an entire ecosystem of startup companies engaged in overturning the ways in which the world deals with money.
“This is not some narrow addressable market, it’s trillions of dollars and represent billions of dollars of opportunity,” says Matt Harris, a managing director with Bain Capital Ventures who specializes in backing financial services technology companies.
The most immediate winners are Lending Club’s investors, among them Norwest Venture Partners, Canaan Partners, Morgenthaler Ventures, Bay Partners, Foundation Capital, Union Square Ventures, and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
