What is Lendify about?

Lendify is the first and leading peer-to-peer lending platform focused on prime borrowers in the unsecured consumer credit space in Sweden. We have handled loan applications for over SEK 350 MM and more than 3,000 lenders and borrowers have signed up since launch in August 2014.

What are the three main advantages for investors?

• High risk-adjusted returns.
• Access to unsecured personal loans extended to prime borrowers in a very low-default rate market (Sweden) with many years of well documented historical data.
• A new type of investments that further diversifies a mixed investment portfolio.

What are the three main advantages for borrowers?

• Personalized interest rate.
• Transparent (all interests and fees are clearly presented and available to all site visitors)
• Simple and fast process for applying and monitoring (borrowers can log in and see status of payments etc.)

What ROI can investors expect?

It is still early days for P2P lending in Sweden but we expect 7% on average.

Lendify received 2M EUR in funding recently. Who are the backers?

Fredrik Wallenberg, Hans Westin & Sten Schröder where the two latter have a great track record in the Swedish consumer lending space.

Is the technical platform self-developed?

Yes, everything is developed in-house.

What was the greatest challenge so far in the course launching Lendify?

Being the first in a market is great, but it also provides challenges out of a marketing and regulatory perspective. Not many people in Sweden are aware of the concept “peer-to-peer lending”, and we work hard to educate people of the concept.

How is p2p lending regulated in Sweden?

We are overseen by the Financial Supervisory Authority (Sw. Finansinspektionen). Right now regulations in the Swedish consumer lending space are being reviewed and made more strict, which we are very happy about since trust is essential in our business.

Compared to the UK market, what is the state of p2p lending in Sweden?

Several years behind, but gaining traction faster than it did in the UK in the early days. We believe that, besides us, 4-5 players will enter the market in 2015-2016. Swedes are in general considered early adopters for most things concerning tech and the Internet, and we believe that peer-to-peer lending will catch on quickly as soon as people find out more about it.

Which marketing channels do you use to attract investors and borrowers? Can you share the acquisition costs per customer?

We don’t maximise volumes on the borrower side yet, so we can generate the volumes we need from traditional online marketing. Going forward we will expand with other channels and strategies as well. On the investor side we have a much more qualitative approach to growth. Unfortunately we cannot share our acquisition cost right now.

Do you plan to cooperate with institutional investors? In which way?

Right now 100% of the funding is retail, but our aim is to have institutional partners on board during 2015 and we have ongoing and advanced talks with a few potential partners. We are also in the process of setting up a fund that will provide access for accredited investors to invest through the platform.

Do you plan an international expansion? Will non residents be able to use your platforms as investors?

Right now, we focus on building Lendify in the Swedish market, but going forward we will be looking to expand into other markets and aim to become the Nordic Champion.

Where do you see Lendify in 3 years?

As the market leader in Sweden with awareness in a few other markets.

P2P-Banking.com thanks Patrick Schierenbeck for the interview.