Lendtable is part of a growing wave of fintech startups creating new financing models that are more accessible to the average consumer, and recently raised an $18 million funding round with participation from the SoftBank Opportunity Fund.
But consumer finance protection advocates fear that what Lendtable is pitching could make it so people who are already struggling financially end up in over their heads. “Like anything, the devil is in the details, and if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is,” warned Brent Adams, senior vice president of Policy and Communication at the Woodstock Institute, a consumer finance protection nonprofit.