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SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Social Finance Inc. (SoFi) today announced that it has raised $77.2 million in series B funding led by Baseline Ventures and joined by DCM and Renren Inc. (RENN), Chinas largest social networking site. SoFi is an innovative lending solution that gives students access to lower loan rates than Federal Direct and PLUS loans with similar borrower protections by fostering social and economic connections with alumni investors. The new capital will be used to help SoFi grow its alumni investor base and reach new student and graduate borrowers as it expands beyond 78 schools this fall.

With more students applying for loans for post-secondary education coupled with state budget cutbacks for higher education and a federal loan market that can punish good borrowers, the student loan and debt crisis is getting worse before its going to get better, said Mike Cagney, CEO of Social Finance. Through SoFi, we have been able to create a whole new market that gives students better alternatives to fund their education while strengthening ties to their alumni community.

The SoFi program works as a dedicated lending fund that offers students a better fixed loan rate than todays unsubsidized Federal Direct and PLUS loans. At the same time it enables alumni to connect with their alma mater while earning an attractive return. The program also fosters interaction between students and alumni through a unique social platform that combines on-line and off-line connections that facilitate financial literacy, career mentoring and in-school project assistance ultimately helping to reduce lending rates and lower loss rates for students.

To date, SoFis lending program is available in 78 schools ranging from large universities such as Stanford and University of Michigan to smaller colleges such as Smith and Swarthmore. It will expand beyond 78 schools this fall.SoFi has generated more than $60 million in loan applications and is on a path to commit more than $200 million in student loans in 2012.

When taking the current and foreseeable macro environment into account, there is a massive opportunity for SoFi to disrupt the entire finance market, said Steve Anderson, founder of Baseline Ventures. Alumni across the country want to be more involved with their universities and many have savings sitting on the sidelines earning no interest. At the same time students need lower loan rates to make college more affordable and need help with career decisions and mentoring. SoFi makes the economics work for everyone: students benefit from lower rates and alumni support, and alumni earn better returns and add value to their schools through SoFis community lending engagement model.

In March, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced that student debt had passed $1 trillion. In addition, a recent report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York revealed that the delinquency rate for student loans, which is currently at 8.9 percent, increased during the second quarter of 2012. This compared to the delinquency rates for mortgages (6.3 percent), credit cards (10.9 percent) and auto loans (4.2 percent) which all decreased.

There are very few companies that do social good while also leveraging next generation financial and social networking services, said David Chao, co-founder and general partner, DCM. Student loans are a major national issue that needs to be resolved. Through SoFis unique approach they are not only helping students through financial literacy and reducing their loan rates, but also enabling alumni to connect with their alma mater and truly give back to their community.

As a pioneering company pushing the potential of social infrastructure, we closely observe and participate in other online businesses that are leveraging social to create, market and distribute products at scale, said Joe Chen, CEO of Renren. SoFi lies at the nexus of the social revolution, which began with social gaming and social ecommerce and is now poised to transform finance and education.

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Social Finance Raises $77 Million to Address Student Loan Crisis

Mary Casanova read about the frozen prostitute 20 years ago in a history of Koochiching County, and she couldn't get the image out of her head.

"Someone took this woman's body, put a liquor bottle in her hand and stood her up as a joke before a town meeting around 1909," recalled Casanova, who lives in Ranier, Minn., near the Canadian border.

"Who was that woman? I wanted to vindicate her, give her a voice. For a long time, I wasn't sure how to tell it; the image of her body used as a joke was so disturbing and compelling. But it wouldn't let me go. I kept working on it and leaving it, until finally it took shape in the voice of her daughter."

That daughter, Sadie Rose, is the central character in Casanova's new novel, "Frozen."

This is the first young-adult novel from Casanova, 55, an award-winning author who's done 30 picture books, kids books and chapter books for middle school readers.

"Frozen" is also Casanova's first book with a regional publisher, University of Minnesota Press, and UMP's first original youngadult fiction.

Rich in historical details and descriptions of the area around Rainy Lake, the story begins in 1920 with 16-year-old Sadie Rose unwilling to speak. Sadie was taken in by a politician and his wife when she was found almost frozen in a snowbank after following a man who was carrying her mother's body from the hotel/brothel where they lived.

When Sadie discovers some provocative old pictures of her mother, her speech returns

Casanova said she "didn't want to compete" in the world of paranormal novels currently hot with young adults, and that's just fine with Todd Orjala, senior acquisitions editor for University of Minnesota Press.

"We are going against the tide, since this book is not about vampires or mermaids," Orjala said. "But it is an edgy book. The protagonist is raised in a brothel, confronted by difficult circumstances. It's very realistic."

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University of Minnesota Press, author Mary Casanova partner on 'Frozen,' new YA fiction

Associated Press

In this photo taken Sept. 1, 2012 and released by Chinas Xinhua News Agency, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping addresses the opening ceremony of the autumn semester of the Party School of the Communist Party of China in Beijing. Chinese micro-bloggers and overseas websites have come up with all kinds of creative speculation as to why President-in-waiting Xi has gone unseen for more than a week. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Li Tao)

BEIJING A Chinese spokesman on Tuesday said he had no information about the status of leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping, who dropped from sight 10 days ago and has canceled a series of meetings with foreign visitors.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said he had no information in this regard when asked about Xis condition and whereabouts at a news conference Tuesday.

Asked whether Xi was still alive, Hong replied: I hope you can ask more serious questions.

Xis absence and the complete lack of information from the government has sent the Chinese rumor mill into overdrive, with most speculation focusing on a health crisis ranging from a sore back to a stroke. Some of the more fanciful tales involve a staged car crash as part of a political feud, although no evidence has been offered to back that up.

The 59-year-old Xi is Chinas vice president and was picked five years ago to succeed President Hu Jintao. Xi is due to take over as head of the ruling Communist Party at a congress later this year, although no date for it has been announced yet.

Xis last public appearance was at the opening of the Communist Party training academys fall session on Sept. 1. Since then, he has canceled meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt. On Sunday, he also missed an emergency meeting of the Central Military Commission, of which he is a vice chairman, called to discuss earthquake recovery work.

The mystery surrounding Xi is the latest in a string of unforeseen incidents that have threatened to derail the leaderships plans for a smooth handover of power to younger officials. Those began with the spectacular downfall of high-profile populist politician Bo Xilai and the unexplained reassignment of a top aide to Hu earlier this month.

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No word on status of China’s missing next leader

By Malcolm Morrison, The Canadian Press

TORONTO - The Canadian dollar closed at a 13-month high Tuesday amid expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will launch another round of stimulus to help the American economy.

The loonie was off the highs of the session, closing up 0.45 of a cent to 102.75 cents US after going as high as 102.91 cents US as the greenback weakened ahead of the Feds two-day meeting on interest rates.

The central bank could announce another round of quantitative easing Thursday, which would see the Fed print more money to buy up bonds in order to keep interest rates low and encourage lending.

Expectations that the Fed would provide another jolt for the economy increased after jobs data released Friday failed to meet modest expectations of 125,000 new jobs. Instead, the economy cranked out 97,000 jobs and employment numbers for June and July were revised downward.

However, there is a degree of uncertainty as to whether the Fed will act now, especially as it may not want to become a key point of debate in the upcoming U.S. presidential election.

The American currency weakened further Tuesday morning after Moody's Investors Service said it would likely cut its "Aaa" rating on U.S. government debt, probably by one notch, if federal budget negotiations fail. If the highly partisan Congress does not reach a budget deal, more than $600 billion in spending cuts and tax increases will kick in next year.

That scenario has been called the "fiscal cliff" because it is likely to send the U.S. economy back into recession and drive unemployment up.

Commodities were higher amid signs that the Chinese government may be moving to provide another round of stimulus measures to help a slowing economy.

A day after data showed Chinese imports and factory output continuing to slow, Chinas premier Wen Jiabao promised to do more to encourage growth through more tax cuts and measures to boost consumer spending.

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Canadian dollar at 13-month high ahead of expected Fed word on stimulus

Bohemia, NY (PRWEB) September 07, 2012

On September 7, 2012, social media marketing agency, fishbat, announced the inception of Reel Time, their weekly podcast series.

A leader in effective online marketing strategies, fishbat provides online marketing tools and innovative digital platform practices for all business strategies. Reel Time marks the genesis of fishbats newest method of disseminating social media and digital marketing advice to current and potential customers.

The objective of Reel Time is to keep businesses au courant with social media and digital marketing strategies. Anybody wanting to increase their knowledge of ways to increase brand awareness can receive advice from fishbats digital marketing experts. While creating engaging content and fine-tuning various aspects of operation on a digital platform, fishbat has reached a milestone in social media marketing. Each installment of Reel Time highlights and expands upon a specific online marketing advantage or innovation that companies may not be familiar with.

Scott Darrohn, COO of fishbat, Inc., states, Theres a lot of information out there that people arent familiar with in our industry. With fishbat being a leader in our industry we feel that being as social as we [fishbat] are, we want to have the ability to pass it forwardWe want to be able to share our information out with other people that are in our industry or many companies themselves that are looking to get involved on the digital platforms. And the best way really to do it is to have a weekly podcast go out that addresses each topic individually.

Reel Time, a fishbat Podcast, is downloadable on their podcast page and on iTunes.

fishbat, Inc. is a full service web marketing agency. Though social media management, search engine optimization (SEO), web design, and public relations, fishbat strives as a marketing firm to fully bring awareness regarding your brand and strengthen your corporate image.

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Social Media Marketing Agency, fishbat Announces Launch of Podcast: Reel Time