LOS ANGELES—Peer-to-peer lending platform Asset Avenue has completed its series-A funding, securing $11 million. The round was led by Silicon Valley-based investor DCM Ventures, and included NetEase and Matrix Partners, who participated in the company's $4 million seed round last year.

“There is a lot of interest in this space, and one of the things we were really intentional about when we started the company was to have a focus on lending only. We have never done an equity deal and we never will,” David Manshoory, CEO and co-founder of Asset Avenue, tells GlobeSt.com. “That has allowed us to scale the company really quickly, and because of the success of alternative lending in general, a lot of venture capital firms were paying attention to what we were doing. There was a lot of interest in the round.”

DCM Ventures became the ideal partner because of their keen understanding of the peer-to-peer lending space. The company is also an investor in the largest peer-to-peer lender of student loans, SoFi, where DCM general partner David Chao sits on the board. “I was really set on working with a firm that really understood peer-to-peer lending. We really saw eye-to-eye, and they really understood what we were doing,” says Manshoory. “That was one of the biggest reasons why we decided to partner with them.”

Manshoory plans to use the funds to continue to grow the company in three specific areas: first, investing in and growing the company's team; secondly, investing in the product and technology to make it “more intuitive, easier and faster to use;” and lastly, investing in marketing efforts to “put Asset Avenue on the map from a national level.” According to Manshoory, through this growth, the firm's goals will remain the same. “We are really focused on putting our heads down and working hard, and we will continue to serve the mission, which is really to become the fastest most efficient lender in the country,” he says. “In the banking industry, it can take people 30 to 60 days to get a loan. Our goal is really to get that down to 10 days, which is really aggressive but very doable. In general, we are continuing to build a team and take it from there.”