Rocket Internet Sells Lendico to Arrowgrass

Rocket Internet has sold its majority stake in German startup Lendico to Arrowgrass. The German p2p lending marketplace Lendico was struggeling in the past months. It stopped the origination of consumer loans in Germany and the Netherlands. Investors complained about ongoing IT problems of the platform.

The purchase price was not disclosed.

Arrowgrass, a UK hedge fund, was among the investors in Lendico’s 2015 round. At that time Arrowgrass obtained a 7% stake.

Another Rocket Internet backed German p2p lending startup, Zencap was sold to Funding Circle in 2015.

The German market is a tough market for p2p lending services to succeed. Few companies run a p2p lending marketplace model. One of the earliest players, Smava pivoted already in 2012 and now brokers bank loans.