Argon Credit, a Chicago-based online personal loan startup, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, according to court filings.
The startup, which uses proprietary algorithms and data analytics to approve prime and near-prime borrowers for loans between $2,000 and $35,000, previously raised $5 million in funding between 2014 and 2015, then $75 million in debt financing in May 2015.
Argon filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy December 16. Court documents shows the company has between $1 million and $10 million in assets, and between $50 million and $100 million in liabilities.
Argon moved its headquarters to downtown Chicago in 2015, and told the Chicago Tribune it would grow to 150 employees.
Chief operations officer Sean Tomasz declined to offer further details, as the case is still in bankruptcy court, and did not respond to requests for updated information on employment and customers. A map on their website indicates they're operating in eight states, and planned to expand to 10 additional states in 2016. A WSJ Pro story on the filing noted that the bankruptcy filing was related to "contracting out administrative work," but Tomasz did not respond to requests for confirmation.
The company was cofounded in 2014 by Raviv Wolfe and Gary Zumski.
It has been a challenging year for online lenders--Chicago unicorn Avant laid off 60 workers then announced it would cut its monthly loan rate in half, with "plans to reduce the number of workers in line with that." (According to Crains, they now employ approximately 600--down from 1,000--but recently announced they started a partnership with Regions bank and will launch a credit card next summer.)
