The table lists the loan originations of p2p lending marketplaces for last month. Funding Circle leads ahead of Zopa and Ratesetter. The total volume for the reported platforms adds up to 391 million Euro. I track the development of p2p lending volumes for many markets. Since I already have most of the data on file, I can publish statistics on the monthly loan originations for selected p2p lending platforms.
Milestones reached this month are:
Bondora reaches 100 million Euro in financed loans since launch
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Table: P2P Lending Volumes in August 2017. Source: own research
Note that volumes have been converted from local currency to Euro for the purpose of comparison. Some figures are estimates/approximations. *Prosper and Lending Club no longer publish origination data for the most recent month.
The table lists the loan originations of p2p lending marketplaces in June. Zopa leads ahead of Funding Circle and Lendinvest. The total volume for the reported platforms adds up to 491 million Euro. I added Iuvo Group and Dofinance to the table. I track the development of p2p lending volumes for many markets. Since I already have most of the data on file, I can publish statistics on the monthly loan originations for selected p2p lending platforms.
Milestones reached this month are:
Zopa crosses 2.5 billion GBP originated since launch
Ratesetter crosses 2 billion GBP originated since launch
Mintos loan volume since launch now over 250 million Euro
Lendix reaches 100 million Euro in financed loans since launch
Table: P2P Lending Volumes in July 2017. Source: own research
Note that volumes have been converted from local currency to Euro for the purpose of comparison. Some figures are estimates/approximations. *Prosper and Lending Club no longer publish origination data for the most recent month.
Crowdestate is a leading Nordic real estate crowdfunding marketplace offering high-quality, pre-vetted real estate investment opportunities. Only the best investment opportunities survive our rigorous due diligence process, and these are the ones we open for investing on our platform. With each project, we present our investors with extensive background information, risk level, SWOT, business plans and financial models. Combine it with Crowdestate’s low, just 100 euro minimum investment – all of this makes investing into real estate quick, easy and affordable to everyone.
What are the three main advantages for investors?
Pre-vetted real estate investment opportunities – Our experienced real estate and finance team evaluates thoroughly each aspect of every project and picks the best investment opportunities to be published for crowdfunding. Low minimum investment amount – the minimum investment on our platform is just 100 euros, meaning basically anyone can afford to invest into real estate with Crowdestate. Everyone can invest – Crowdestate is open to all investors all around the world, provided that they have a way to make an international bank transfer to their virtual investment account previously created on our platform.
As an additional advantage, we charge no fees from our investors.
There are many different types of investment opportunities on Crowdestate. Debt, equity, secured, unsecured… Why did you decide to use so many different types for the offers?
If we look at the real estate industry, any real estate project needs different types of capital – from senior loans to mezzanine debt to preferred or common equity. Crowdestate’s aim is to become a full capital stack provider so we can address our Sponsors’ needs properly. This is the reason why we have not limited us to a single capital type.
If we look the real estate projects from investors’ perspective, investors have different investment preferences (e.g. time horizon, risk tolerance etc) and therefore they are looking for different types of investment. Young and aggressive investors might like high-risk equity deals while some other investors might prefer lower risk-lower return senior loans.
What ROI can investors expect?
The historical money-weighted average internal rate of return on our exited investment currently at 29.59%. However, as the fast-increasing money supply is driving the expected returns down, the investors’ annual returns are probably going to remain between 10-20%. The return rate is a reflection of project’s riskiness – a mortgage-backed senior loan might yield around 10% per annum while riskier mezzanine or equity investments may offer much higher yield.
How did you start Crowdestate? Is the company funded with venture capital?
During my few decades in the banking industry, I have met hundreds, maybe even thousands of clients, who are unhappy with the investments offered by their banks and they have clearly expressed their preferences to invest in real estate. Unfortunately, for most of these people investing into real estate never became a reality. They simply could not afford it due to the high entry costs and significant individual investment ticket.
At the same time, funding real estate projects had become a challenge for developers as banks became more and more picky.
I founded Crowdestate in 2014 to match the needs of the investors to the needs of real estate companies.
Is the company profitable now?
Yes, Crowdestate has been profitable from its very first year, and we have reinvested all the profits to developing the business.
Is the technical platform self-developed?
Yes, our platform was developed from scratch, and we are constantly working on improving it.
Are there any new features for the platform your team is working on? What about a secondary market?
We are currently finishing updating our mortgage-back loans offering and we will have very quick and automated approach there. We are also introducing a reverse interest auction to determine a true market rate for a specific project and an autoinvest feature.
We are also considering opening a Secondary Market for investments within this year allowing our investors to buy and sell their investments to other Crowdestate’s investors.
Currently there are usually one or two new investment opportunities per month. Can investors expect more deals in the second half of this year?
Our thorough vetting process eliminates most of the original investment ideas and therefore limits the number of investment opportunities we can present o our investors each month. Our Estonia and Latvia based teams are working hard to identify high-quality investment opportunities in the region.
We are also testing the interest for crowdfunded corporate finance deals and we are launching a new mortgage-backed loans solution soon. We expect those new solutions to increase the variety of investment opportunities on the platform.
Crowdestate is open to international investors. Can you please share from which countries the majority of your investors come?
Crowdestate is visited from all over the world and our investors come from South-East Asia to North-America.
As Crowdestate was founded in Estonia, Estonians are still the largest investor group, but the fast-growing number of international investors will bypass them probably quite soon.
Do you plan to cooperate with institutional investors? In which way?
Crowdfunding is about crowd and investment democracy and we prefer to serve a large number of small investors to serving a small number of large investors.
What is the current state of the real estate market in Estonia?
We believe the overall health of the market is good as the economy is doing well, interest rates are low and real wages are growing fast. At the same time, we have some suspicions on the health of specific sectors, namely offices and retail spaces – there is a lot of speculative developments in those sectors and we will probably see some changes there.
How do you think the property development market will be impacted by p2p lending in Estonia / in Europe in the future?
One of the leading Scandinavian banks stated recently, that the residential developments should be funded by equity, prepayments and crowdfunding. As the credit is quite tight in most of CEE countries, crowdfunding will play a significant role in funding the real estate development market.
Where do you see Crowdestate in 3 years?
I hope that Crowdestate is present outside our current domestic markets and we can help hundreds of thousands of investors in turning their savings into earnings.
The table lists the loan originations of p2p lending marketplaces in June. Funding Circle leads ahead of Zopa and Lendinvest. Assetz Capital makes a huge leap forward. The total volume for the reported platforms adds up to 530 million Euro. I track the development of p2p lending volumes for many markets. Since I already have most of the data on file, I can publish statistics on the monthly loan originations for selected p2p lending platforms.
Milestones reached this month are:
Twino reaches 150 million EUR in origination since launch
Table: P2P Lending Volumes in June 2017. Source: own research
Note that volumes have been converted from local currency to Euro for the purpose of comparison. Some figures are estimates/approximations. *Prosper and Lending Club no longer publish origination data for the most recent month.
The table lists the loan originations of p2p lending marketplaces in May. Funding Circle leads ahead of Zopa and Ratesetter. The total volume for the reported marketplaces adds up to 500 million Euro. This is over 10% higher than the previous month and that despite the adverse effect of the pound taking a dive. I track the development of p2p lending volumes for many markets. Since I already have most of the data on file I can publish statistics on the monthly loan originations for selected p2p lending platforms. This month I added Paskoluklubas.
Milestones reached this month are:
Assetz Capital crosses 250 million GBP lent sinch launch
Lendinvest reaches 1 billion GBP in origination since launch
Table: P2P Lending Volumes in May 2017. Source: own research
Note that volumes have been converted from local currency to Euro for the purpose of comparison. Some figures are estimates/approximations. *Prosper and Lending Club no longer publish origination data for the most recent month.
NEO Finance is the leading P2P lending platform „Paskolų klubas“ in Lithuania. The platform is an intermediary for consumer loans connecting lenders directly with borrowers. We believe that fintech company should be not only innovative, but also professional. This is why we gathered a strong team of senior experts from the banking sector with the expertise in consumer lending, bank management and risk control. Currently all of “NEO Finance†activities are supervised by the Bank of Lithuania due to obtained e-money license, P2P license and as a consumer lender status, to ensure that responsible lending criteria is enforced.
We have a unique platform that we developed our self to fit the needs of our investors. NEO Finance offers buyback and provision fund services, which minimizes risk for lenders. Moreover, partnership with Legal Balance, UAB enables platform’s users to experience the benefits of 7+ years of delinquent loans recovery know-how.
By transferring money to “Paskolu klubas†account investors deposit it into e-money IBAN account under their own name and hold all of the money under their control till the investment is made.
Our main goal is to ensure a sufficient supply of loans are listed in the primary market, so that our investors can cherry-pick the loans adequate to their investment strategy.
What are the three main advantages for investors?
Provision fund service. By voluntarily paying a provision fund fee, more conservative investors can be secured from delinquent or defaulted loans. If a borrower is late with the installment, provision fund immediately covers that installment. The fund holds largest amount of proceeds to cover late payments in the Baltics and holds more than 100 000 EUR at the moment.
Buybacks. Investors, who did not choose the provision fund service, can sell defaulted investments to “Paskolu klubas†for 50-80% of its face value. Instead of waiting for a relatively long recovery process they can reinvest their money into other loans.
Higher interests rates of return. In Lithuania, we operate in market of higher interest rate. Currently our average interest rates are as fallowed for each of the credit rating: A – 13 % B – 17% C – 20%. This creates opportunity for investors from all over the Europe to receive higher returns.
What are the three main advantages for borrowers?
Lower fees for borrowers. As our fees are one of the lowest for borrowers, therefore half of the borrowers choose “Paskolu klubas†loan as an alternative for a bank loan.
Possibility to get an instant loan. Since we developed in-house state-of-the-art IT platform ourselves we can offer unique features for borrowers and investors. One of them is instant loan service. Investors can set up their automatic investment tool and borrowers can see what amount they can borrow at what rates, as the system collects all automatic investment orders starting with the lowest rate and building it up to meet the needs of a borrower. This feature enables investors to invest their capital faster.
No upfront fees. Unlike other platforms Paskolu klubas does not charge upfront fee from borrowers. Borrowers do receive the exact amount they borrow. Platform fee is deducted from the payments, this way we take the risk together with investors and are able to offer barrows flexible barrowing.
What ROI can investors expect?
10-18% after taxes. One investor did an experiment with 4000 EUR initial deposit. Half of the investments were made using a provision fund service, 5 defaulted investments were sold to NEO Finance and some investments were sold in the secondary market with premium. ROI after exactly 1 year was 14% after taxes.
Is the technical platform self-developed?
Yes, this allows us to add various new features and to fit the needs of both – investors and borrowers. We are not only the peer to peer platform, but also a fully licensed e-money institution. This enables us to operate as an online bank with IBAN account numbers and SEPA MMS payments.
How is the company financed? Is it profitable?
The company is financed from shareholder’s equity. It is not profitable yet, but we are in operation for only one and a half year. Our current goal is market penetration and market share.
What were/are the main challenges in the Lithuanian market?
When preparing for the launch, we spent a lot of time carefully analyzing Lithuanian and foreign markets. “Paskolu klubas†shareholders and employees have a lot of experience in the financial sector, we also cooperate with the best partners and agencies. This helped us to be prepared, therefore none of the challenges were unexpected.
One of the more significant challenge was financial literacy. Potential investors were not introduced to peer to peer lending before. Therefore, we started an event and training cycle where we educate investors about pros and cons of peer to peer lending.
You launched the company for residents of Lithuania quite some time ago. What prompted you to open up for international investors and launch an English version of the website right now?
From our experience, we knew that establishing consumer loan brand in a market takes at least a year. We focused our effort on becoming the number one platform in Lithuania for the past 18 months, but had strategic plans to open our platform to international investors from the beginning. Currently we can supply enough of quality loans for international investors.
Another reason was it took time to acquire full e-money license. For this we had to make sure we meet international anti-money laundering requirements and international identification requirements. Only after establishing processes, developing the system and meeting those international requirements we are ready to offer opportunity for international investors.
Which marketing channels do you use to attract investors and borrowers?
For investors, we mostly use educational channels where we try not only to advertise, but also to educate people about investment opportunities. In 2016 we organized over 30 events for our investors. We also use partnership of different financing experts who can provide feedback on our platform and receive bonuses for the investors they bring in.
Moreover, word of mouth perfectly works for us, because we have many satisfied investors, who are sharing their experiences and helping us grow.
For the borrowers, we have fully integrated marketing campaign. We use all traditional and digital channels. We invest in brand building and acquiring quality borrowers. This helps us to acquire valuable borrowers, who are worth to invest in.
Where do you see Paskoluklubas in 3 years?
We see Paskolu klubas as a global player in P2P lending sector. We may establish borrowing sites in other countries, but we will localize it as we did with Paskolu klubas in Lithuania. We see advantages of strong brand in each country we operate for borrowers. We are currently on a path of fast growth and we are not looking to slow it down. Our goal for next few years is to be the number one platform for investors in the Baltic states.
Investors can use the Paskoluklubas referral code P2PBANKING when registering and get 10 Euro for their first investments.
