P2P Lender Lendico Launches in Germany

Today Lendico opened its p2p lending doors to lenders and borrowers in Germany. The Berlin startup is funded by Rocket Internet the venture fund of Samwer brothers. Said to have been developed in 6 months the site now competes with Smava, Auxmoney and Isepankur for the German audience. The startup is said to plan an expansion into several other European markets with Germany only the initial step. To comply with German regulation Lendico partnered with Wirecard Bank.

Borrowers can apply for loans from 1,000 to 25,000 Euro and loan terms of 2,3,4 or 5 years. Much like Lending Club Lendico assigns differents grades to the loan request and sets the interest rates depending on grade and loan term. Interest rates (nominal) range from 2 to 11 percent which might give Lendico a hard time to attract lenders considering the 1% service fee plus expected bad debts of up to 9.9% (in grade E).

The management team of Lendico consists of Dominik Steinkühler, Clemens Paschke, Philipp Petrescu and Christoph Samwer. Steinkühler said the company targets borrowers that have no loans from banks so far, not borrowers that cannot get loans anymore and are looking for alternate sources.

P2P-Kredite.com has a detailed write-up with screenshots from a lender’s perspective.