Marlette Funding LLC, a "personal loan marketplace" online loan-processing company employing 50 (fulltime-equivalent) plus 150 contractors at offices on US 202 in Fairfax, Del., just north of the I-95 exit at Wilmington, Del., says it has approved debt-consolidation, home-improvement, medical and vacation loans worth nearly $500 million so far this year, passing its total for all of 2014 ($383 million). Marlette targets customers using direct mail, at a time when credit card giants like Chase have switched toward online and social media marketing.
The investor-backed start-up and its "Best Egg" loans system competes with LendingClub, Prosper and other online and mail-based lenders that have sprung up in recent years, based mostly on rapid application and approval software, to compete with banks and loan brokers. Marlette says it is profitable "on a GAAP basis" and plans "aggressive employee recruiting efforts" to add workers.
Marlette isn't a bank; its loans are made through Cross River Bank, Teaneck, N.J. Marlette is run by a group of former managers at BarclaycardUSA in Wilmington, including CEO Jeffrey Meiler and colleagues Sabrina Basht and Paul Ricci (corrected). "I consider those executives to be exceptionally strong, high performing people," Richard Vague, the Wilmington banker turned Philadelphia philanthropist who formerly headed Barclaycard's Wilmington operations, told me. (He also said he's not "up to speed" on the business they're now in.)
