Interview with Asger Trier Bing, CEO of Danish service Lendino.
What is Lendino about?
- Lendino is a marketplace lender for loans to SMEs in Scandinavia ranging from 20K-2M USD.
What are the three main advantages for investors?
- Investors get a higher return than from similar asset classes.
- Investors are enabled to invest in companies that appeal to them (CSR).
- Investors can invest in their own local area or in a company of a friend.
What are the three main advantages for borrowers?
- Borrowers get a lower interest on their loan, which will benefit them through decreased funding costs
- It is faster and easier to apply for funding at Lendino than at a bank.
- Borrowers can build a stronger relationship with customers who invest in their loans
What ROI can investors expect?
- Investors should expect a net return of 5-8 percent
How did you start Lendino? Is the company funded with venture capital?
- Lendino was launched in 2013 by Andreas Christensen and Asger Trier.
- The vision is to improve finance.
- The company has been funded by the founders until today.
- A VC round is ongoing and is expected to close within 30 days.
- It has a  mix of Danish and UK investors onboard.
Is the technical platform self-developed?
- Yes
- The CTO of Lendino is a PhD and former SimCorp employee and has developed the platform.
What was the greatest challenge so far in the course launching Lendino?
- The regulation has been a major obstacle that Lendino has managed to overcome.
- Lendino was the first platform to obtain a Payment institute license to operate in Scandinavia.
Which marketing channels do you use to attract invested and borrowers? Can you share the acquisition costs per customer?
- Lendino uses a mix of private and professional channels to go to market.
- The CAC is not available.
How is the Danish market different form the UK p2p lending market? Are there advantages/disadvantages (e.g. in regulation, credit scoring, …)?
- The Danish market is very attractive as companies are very solvent but still highly underserved by the banks.
- The companies are facing historically bad funding access.
Where do you see Lendino in 3 years? Is P2C Lending a threat to banks?
- Lendino aims to be the number 1 marketplace lender in the Nordics within 3 years.
- Lendino is a supplement to the banks and has already established partnerships with the established sector.
P2P-Banking.com thanks Asger Trier Bing for the interview.