DURHAM — A company that wants to help consumers and businesses borrow money from friends and family has raised $200,000 in debt and equity, according to a filing Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Durham-based Loanable LLC raised the money from five investors, according to the filing.

Users of the Loanable system create accounts on its website, setting parameters such as how much they want to borrow, the repayment time period and the interest rate they’re willing to pay.

The company conducted a beta test last year with 50 customers.

Loanable was the lone Durham participant in last year’s Google for Entrepreneurs’ Exchange program. It led by Bernard Worthy who participated in the first Black Founders program in 2016.

In November, it received a $50,000 seed grant from NC IDEA, a private foundation committed to supporting entrepreneurial business innovation and economic advancement in North Carolina.

Worthy, who was the founder and CEO of Hackstarter, has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from UNC-Chapel Hill.

He believes the solution to the U.S. student loan debt problem is access to affordable capital for student loans and refinancing, through formal and legal friends and family financing.

Instead of traditional financing that charges market rates or limits access completely, friends and family financing creates a win-win scenario allowing the borrower to pay less interest with more favorable terms and allowing the lender to earn a higher return than conservative investments like money market or savings accounts, Worthy argues.

It is not connected to a British company with the same name.

Companies relying on a Reg D exemption do not have to register their offering of securities with the SEC, but they must file what’s known as a Form D electronically with the SEC after they first sell their securities.

This story is from the North Carolina Business News Wire, a service of the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Media and Journalism