2011 2011 11 headquarters new york new york key people david klein ceo morgan edwards cfo robb granado coo vinayak gurjar chief risk officer phil degisi chief marketing officer products student loans website commonbond.co commonbond is a marketplace lender that lowers the cost of student loans for borrowers and provides financial returns to investors . the company refinances graduate and undergraduate student loans for graduates of over 2 000 universities saving the average borrower over 14 000 over the life of the loan . 1 commonbond also provides in school loans to current mba students at 20 programs in the united states . the company which launched nationally in september 2013 is on track to fund or refinance more than 500 million in student loans by the end of 2015 . 2 contents 1 company background and overview 2 products and services 3 social mission 4 see also 5 references 6 external links company background and overview edit commonbond was founded in november 2012 by david klein michael taormina and jessup shean who met at the university of pennsylvania s wharton school mba program . 3 the impetus for initiating the company was the founders frustration with the lack of affordable loan options to fund their own graduate school education . 3 for their business proposal the trio was accepted to the highly selective wharton venture initiation program which serves as a start up incubator . 4 after deciding to pilot their model at wharton the group focused on fundraising during the summer of 2012 . by the company s launch in november 2012 commonbond had raised 3.5 million ; 2.5 million had been invested by wharton alumni and another 1 million of seed funding was provided by a wharton alumnus in return for a stake in the company . 3 commonbond s first fund lent to 40 mba students and recent graduates at wharton . commonbond expanded to 20 mba programs across the country in september 2013 after announcing it had raised over 100 million in equity and debt financing from investors including tribeca venture partners and the social capital partnership as well as industry veterans vikram pandit former ceo of citigroup thomas glocer former ceo of thomson reuters and tom kalaris former vice chairman of barclays . 5 6 7 8 in march 2014 commonbond expanded its student loan refinancing and consolidation programs to graduates of law medical and engineering programs across the u.s. in addition to mba programs . 9 10 in february 2015 commonbond expanded its student loan refinancing program to a total of 14 graduate degree programs including mbas jds mds engineers optometrists masters of finance masters of real estate masters of accounting physician assistants veterinarians dentists healthcare administrators masters of public policy pharmacists and nurses advanced practice degrees 11 . at that time the company also announced a financing partnership with nelnet nyse nni . nelnet committed 150 million to fund commonbond loan volume and also made an equity investment in the company . this partnership marked the first time a public financial services company had invested in a student loan marketplace . 12 commonbond completed its first securitization of student loans in june 2015 . with an investment grade rating from moody s of baa2 and dbrs of a high the company securitized approximately 100 million of student loan assets . the transaction marked the first time moody s has issued an investment grade rating for a first time issuing marketplace lending platform . 2 in july 2015 the company announced the hiring of 25 year finance industry veteran morgan edwards as cfo . 13 in september 2015 commonbond raised 35 million in series b funding from august capital nyca partners and victory park capital in a round led by august capital . 14 shortly thereafter the company announced the expansion of its student loan refinancing program to graduates of over 2 000 universities at the graduate and undergraduate levels as well as the introduction of its parent plus loan refinancing program . 1 products and services edit for student loan refinancing commonbond offers nine fixed and variable interest rate products with terms of 5 10 15 or 20 years . interest rates start at 1.94 % apr with autopay for variable rate loans and at 3.74 % apr with autopay for fixed rate loans . commonbond also offers a student loan industry first option called the hybrid loan a 10 year product that carries a fixed rate initially and a variable rate after a set period of time . 15 16 in september 2015 commonbond introduced a new parent plus loan refinancing program whereby parents who borrowed federal parent plus loans to finance their children s undergraduate education can refinance those loans through commonbond . 1 for in school mba loans commonbond offers a 10 year fixed rate loan at 5.78 % apr and a 15 year fixed rate loan at 6.09 % apr. to expand mba student loan options for international students pursuing u.s. business education commonbond announced a partnership with prodigy finance an international post graduate student lender in july 2015 . the partnership allows international post graduate students who come to commonbond seeking student loan options to secure funding for their business school education in the u.s. through prodigy finance which determines the terms and conditions of the student loans . 17 according to commonbond students and graduates using its platform can benefit from more savings over the course of their loan repayments when compared to traditional funding sources both public and private . 18 alongside the financial savings to borrowers the commonbond value proposition includes high touch customer service as well as a community of students grads and alumni which affords opportunities for networking career development and mentorship . 19 to assist borrowers who are between jobs commonbond offers a service that matches them with consulting opportunities to help them earn money until they find a full time position . 20 social mission edit commonbond is the first company in finance with a one for one social model similar to that of toms shoes and warby parker . for every degree fully funded on the commonbond platform the company funds the education of a student in need abroad for a full year in partnership with pencils of promise . 21 on the local level commonbond has partnered with kipp charter schools and the glow foundation to fund financial literacy programming for under served neighborhoods across the u.s. 3 in 2014 the company introduced the commonbond social impact award to recognize the country s top mba social entrepreneur . christine su ceo of summer technologies was announced as the winner in 2014 . 22 23 the winner of the 10 000 2015 commonbond social impact award was sindhura sarikonda an mba student at wharton and founder and ceo of anti trafficking nonprofit sanlaap north america . 24 see also edit stilt sofi lending club references edit a b c mulhere kaitlin 2015 09 23 . why now might be the best time to refinance your student loans . money magazine . retrieved 2015 09 23 . a b campbell dakin 2015 06 10 . pandit backed commonbond to sell student loans to wall street . bloomberg business . retrieved 2015 09 23 . a b c d graduate investors fund the next generation . financial times . 21 april 2013 . another low cost mba loan option . poets & quants . 8 january 2013 . lending start up commonbond raises 100 million with pandit as investor . the new york times . 4 september 2013 . student loans are broken this company just raised 100 million to fix them . forbes . 4 september 2013 . wharton start up commonbond extends loans to 20 us mba courses . financial times . 4 september 2013 . mba loans seek to shift the culture of borrowing . bloomberg television . 9 september 2013 . with over 100m raised p2p lending platform commonbond expands to 100 programs to help grad students reduce debt . techcrunch . 21 march 2014 . retrieved 24 march 2014 . commonbond extends mba loan scheme . financial times . 19 march 2014 . commonbond refinancing faqs . commonbond.co . commonbond . retrieved 5 february 2015 . saitto serena 5 february 2015 . commonbond obtains 150 million in boom for online lenders . bloomberg business . retrieved 5 february 2015 . haunss kristen 29 july 2015 . macquarie s edwards joins commonbond as cfo . reuters . retrieved 29 july 2015 . henry zoe 8 september 2015 . commonbond gets 35 million funding wants to cut woes behind student loan refinancing . inc magazine . retrieved 8 september 2015 . commonbond introduces industry s first hybrid loan . http www.prnewswire.com . commonbond . retrieved 22 october 2014 . external link in website help commonbond refinance rates and terms . http commonbond.co . commonbond . retrieved 22 october 2014 . external link in website help bhattacharyya rica 2015 07 09 . commonbond prodigy finance ink pact to expand mba loan options for foreign students in us . economic times . retrieved 2015 09 23 . p2p lending & education commonbond launches with 3.5 m joining sofi in quest to solve the student debt crisis . techcrunch . 1 december 2012 . commonbond the warby parker of student loans . the harbus . 31 march 2013 . woodruff mandi 6 february 2015 . student loan refinancing is a great idea except when it s not . yahoo finance . retrieved 6 february 2015 . butler kaitlin . commonbond expands 1 for 1 social promise with pencils of promise partnership . commonbond.co . retrieved 4 december 2013 . schiller ben 5 august 2014 . raising sustainable grass fed beef there is of course even an app for that . co.exist . retrieved 11 august 2014 . klein david . and the winner of the commonbond social impact award is . commonbond . retrieved 11 august 2014 . allen nathan 11 august 2015 . wharton mba wins social impact award . poets & quants . retrieved 11 august 2015 . external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title commonbond & oldid 740805177 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