British Zopa, the person-to-person money marketplace that we've featured in the past, is extending its geographical reach. While Zopa announced expansion to the US a while back and is operating a San Francisco office to prepare their stateside launch, a new country is being added to the roster via a different route.
In Italy, Zopa's technology and brand have been licensed to a local start-up. Milan-based P2P s.r.l. is currently recruiting (tech) team members and hasn't yet announced a Zopa.it launch date, pending accreditation from the Italian banking authorities. The Italian franchise is headed up by Maurizio Pietro Sella, a former Citibank executive.
Hey — franchising works well enough in the brick-and-mortar world, so it's about time we see more of it online. It makes sense, especially when complex processes and strong branding are involved, speeding up international roll-out without the main entity having to shoulder the full costs. Same could be done with other online ventures we've covered, like uShip, Igglo, Zillow and ParkAtMyHouse. As for Zopa: US, UK and Italy down — that leaves dozens of ripe markets to go!
Website: www.zopa.it
Contact: info@zopa.it
Spotted by: Claus Lehmann
I really like the concept of zopa, it is crowd sourcing, so that people can finance people and it's brilliant. I love the idea of moving away from traditioinal services and coming together as a community in order to fulfil those services. Brilliant!
Mark James Bowness