LOS ANGELES—It is undeniable: the peer-to-peer lending business is growing strong, and 2014 was its best year yet. Out of this growth, P2P commercial real estate lender AssetAvenue emerged last year, and has already seen significant success. The firm ended the year with $900 million in loan applications and funded $24 million in commercial real estate loans. Before rounding out the first quarter of 2015, we sat down with the company's founder and president David Manshoory to hear first hand how the industry has evolved and where it is headed next. Here is what he has to say:

GlobeSt.com: In its short history, how have you seen the P2P space change and evolve into a viable financing option?

David Manshoory: Peer-to-peer lending, also commonly referred to as marketplace lending, reached an important milestone in 2014 with the successful IPO of Lending Club and the explosive growth of Prosper. As the model has evolved over the past ten years, we are seeing clear leaders emerge in every asset class, such as Sofi for student loan debt and OnDeck for small business financing.  With these recent successes, we are seeing a natural adoption of other lending verticals. Most importantly, the real estate industry has embraced this new, innovative lending model, which improves upon the traditional lending model through the sophisticated use of technology and data.  

P2P lending today consists of a diverse subset of capital, which includes institutional investors that transact across various marketplaces in programmatic investment structures. Five years ago, such institutional investing was unheard of, but today, this adoption validates the respective marketplaces and paves the way for new lending platforms to thrive. With respect to real estate financing, AssetAvenue is bridging the gap between the large supply of investors that wish to participate in real estate debt and the high demand from real estate owners, developers, and brokers that are seeking easier, quicker, and more cost effective means to finance their projects.

GlobeSt.com: In 2014, P2P experienced some major growth spurts. Where do you think the P2P space will be at the end of next year?

Manshoory: P2P lending has impacted lending across multiple industries. I believe one to two more lenders may go public this year, bringing further validation to the online lending model across different industries. Within the real estate industry, we'll see clear leaders emerge who have a focus on either commercial or residential lending. On the national level, brokers and borrowers are going to become believers in the P2P lending model, and recognize the benefits they provide compared to more traditional lending alternatives. Institutional investors will continue to partner with P2P lenders that have the most sophisticated underwriting models.

GlobeSt.com: What are AssetAvenue's goals for 2015? With $24 million funded in 2014, where do you see yourself at the end of the year?

Manshoory: We have three goals as we begin 2015. The first goal is to increase the team size to support our growing intake of loan applications; from July to December 2014, we received over $900 million in loan applications across all product types, and we anticipate 2015 to be a much busier year for us. Secondly, we are investing heavily into our technology and data infrastructure to further automate and streamline the lending process for borrowers and brokers. Finally, we are expanding our national footprint to lend in more states. We have funded loans in eight states thus far and are focusing on additional states to enter in 2015.

GlobeSt.com: What are some of the challenges you and P2P lending are still overcoming? Do you have any solutions or advice for overcoming or mitigating these challenges?

Manshoory: With any new technology a company brings to market, it is the responsibility of that company to educate their customer base on how their new product or service is better than existing options.  As an alternative lending platform, it is AssetAvenue's job to educate its key customers, borrowers, brokers, and investors, about the benefits of seeking financing or investing through AssetAvenue's platform versus their other current options.

Additionally, we are devoting significant efforts to make the borrower experience a fluid and seamless process through the integration of technology and big data analytics to more efficiently underwrite, process, document, and fund loans in what historically has been a high-friction, paper based process.  We are also able to leverage the marketplace model to significantly deepen our investor network of institutional and accredited investors with varying appetites of risk.  This gives us a competitive advantage over traditional lenders who commonly are limited to a tightly defined funding box, which allows us to provide speed of closing and certainty of funding for our borrowers and brokers.