interview

Interview with Ivalyo Ivanov, CEO of Iuvo Group

wiseclerk

What is Iuvo Group about?

Iuvo is the first South-East European P2P platform that allows its users to buy parts of loans. All loans listed on the platform are issued by originators (registered non-banking financial institutions). We give our users the opportunity to generate an annual return up to 12% on their investments while simultaneously provide our originators with the chance to develop their businesses.

What are the three main advantages for investors?

The most obvious advantages are the high ROI and the buyback guarantee all listed credits have.

Major plus is the reliable originators we have. They go through extensive audits before joining the platform and are required to keep a minimum of 30% of their portfolio – so-called “skin in the game”. Our “skin in the game” requirement is the highest on the P2P market and it is there to better align the interests of the originators with those of our investors.

I might add another serious advantage – we have the biggest and most experienced Bulgarian originator with very clear and refined scoring and lending procedures and more than 10 years experience on the market.

What are the three main advantages for borrowers?

Iuvo is a peer-to-peer marketplace. We don’t lend.

What ROI can investors expect?

The expected annual return depends heavily on the choices our investors make, but the return a well-balanced portfolio should make is on average between 7 and 12%.

Ivaylo Ivanov, CEO Iuvo GroupIs the technical platform self-developed?

Yes, the platform is entirely self-developed and we continue to improve it every day.

How reliable is the credit rating / credit history data available for the Bulgarian loans?

Bulgaria has a very well developed non-banking financial sector and a great deal of experience with consumer loans. The quality of the scoring process is without a doubt on a very high level and there are no reasons to think that would change any time soon. Of course, as I’ve already said, thorough audits are made before we consider any originator joining us.

How is the company financed? Why did you select to start the company in Estonia?

Iuvo is financed through business angels. We chose Estonia as it has been the cradle of P2P lending in the past years and we believe the best way for us to grow and develop is to be where the best platforms are.

What was the greatest challenge so far in the course of launching Iuvo Group?

The greatest challenge we’ve had so far was to educate an audience that has never heard of P2P lending/investing. We’ve worked really hard on gaining awareness and building trust and I’m proud to say we succeeded. The next great challenge we look forward to is providing a user experience that stands out amongst all other platforms.

Which marketing channels do you use to attract investors and borrowers?

We mainly use internet – all the different ad formats and approaches it provides. I find that participating in different forums and events helps tremendously to shorten the distance between us and our investors and I personally believe that the right communication is a mix between technology and personal contact.

Is Iuvo Group open to international investors?

In order to open an account with us individual investors must be at least 18 years old, have a bank account in the European Union (or third countries that are currently considered as having equivalent AML/CFT systems to the EU), and have their identity successfully verified by Iuvo’s back office team.

Where do you see Iuvo Group in 3 years?

I see us as one of the leaders on European P2P lending market. I strongly believe that the potential P2P lending has is yet to be fully achieved and that the industry will surprise us even more with its growth and possibilities. We most definitely will be a part of that.

P2P-Banking.com thanks Ivalyo Ivanov for the interview.

Interview with Arturas Stukalo, CMO of Lenndy

wiseclerk 1 Comment

What is Lenndy about?

Lenndy is the first lending marketplace in Lithuania that connects loan originators with individual and institutional investors. At Lenndy, investors can invest in asset-backed loans and get a 12-15% return.

What are the three main advantages for investors?

  • Loans are secured by buyback guarantee and collateral as well as personal guarantees.
  • 12-15% annual return.
  • No investment amount limits and no platform fees for investors;

What are the three main advantages for loan originators?

  • Easy and transparent opportunity to obtain working capital by selling part of their existing loan contracts to investors (like Mintos).
  • Advanced IT integration with credit management systems capabilities.
  • Ability to grow reputation and brand awareness internationally.

What ROI can investors expect?

Currently, investors at Lenndy earn 12.53% average annual interest. Earnings usually depend on investment strategy and risk awareness. That is, when investors chooses to invest only in loans secured with buyback guarantee and collateral, they can expect to earn around 12% return. When investors seek 13-15 % annual return, they should consider adding invoice financing and business loans to their portfolio.

Is the technical platform self-developed?

Lenndy IT system is self-developed from scratch. IT development company was hired to complement in-house developers. It is very dynamic in order to react to market changes, adapt to multiple financing models and investors’ needs and comply with all legal requirements.

How reliable is the credit rating / credit history data available?

Loan originators collect information about borrowers from reliable credit agencies as well as public registers. We do not use standardized credit rating yet but we already have a developed model for it that will be introduced in the near future.

Arturas Stukalo LenndyHow is the company financed?

Company was founded in late 2015 and secured seed investment from an angel investor. Currently, Lenndy is negotiating with several angel investors and venture capital companies for another financing round that will be used to expansion and further product development.

What was the greatest challenge so far in the course of launching Lenndy?

Our goal was to create an investment instrument that would be attractive to investors, which would be liquid and would supplement any investment portfolio for great diversification. Loans market is massive, but only a fraction of it was available for investors. We know we have a great tool and we are looking forward to reaching individual and institutional investors across the whole Europe and beyond.

What is the current state of regulation in Lithuania?

Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania passed the Law on Crowdfunding, which was created by the Bank of Lithuania and the Ministry of Finance. The Law also describes Lending Marketplace as a crowdfunding model and Lenndy had already started the procedures of involvement in a list of crowdfunding operators.

Which marketing channels do you use to attract investors and borrowers?

Lenndy uses gentle digital marketing to attract investors from Europe and already has about 1000 investors who funded around 90 loans. Lenndy is growing very fast, even though we do not engage in heavy marketing. We believe it is a result of trustful model and word-of-mouth marketing. The word is spreading quickly in Lithuania, therefore we are preparing for international growth.

Is Lenndy open to international investors?

Yes, Lenndy rolled out English language and we have already started working on German and other languages.

Where do you see Lenndy in 3 years?

Lenndy has a target of at least 10 loan originators across Europe to improve portfolio diversification for our investors. In the following years we are planning to introduce portfolio buyout functionality which would allow investors sell their whole portfolio at once, secondary loans market where investors could buy and sell individual loan claim rights and many other features. We see Lenndy as transparent, innovative and trustworthy international lending marketplace.

P2P-Banking.com thanks Arturas Stukalo for the interview.

Interview with Loic Le Pichoux, CEO of Klear

wiseclerk

What is Klear about?

Klear is a Peer to Peer Consumer lending platform. We target Prime Bulgarian Borrowers. We pre-fund the loans, then we list them on the market where investors from EU and EEA can buy parts of them.

Klear has been built by a team of professionals from the consumer credit industry. Almost all of us came from BNP Paribas Personal Finance Bulgaria, the market leader (known as Cetelem in some other countries). For example, Nikolay was the IT development team leader, Lukasz was the CFO then the Chief Risk officer and I myself was the CEO.

Klear is all about building something solid.

What are the three main advantages for investors?

  1. A good net return. 5.5% expected in average, well above the remuneration of deposits, which is close to zero. Klear does not charge fees.
  2. A low risk. We are one of the few platforms in Europe serving good profile borrowers. No subprime or payday loans customers. Such portfolio of credits should be much more resilient in case of economic downturn.
  3. An easy exit option. If an investor sells his loans without premium or discount, all the loans without bad payment history will go on the primary market.

What are the three main advantages for borrowers?

  1. The best interest rates on the market. Cheaper than the banks’. It’s key to attract excellent borrowers.
  2. Full online process. Unique in Bulgaria for prime loans. Authentication is performed through a convenient and efficient video-call. Partial or full early repayments can be done online.
  3. No hidden fees. We have a one-off fee when the loan is disbursed. That’s all.

What ROI can investors expect?

5.5% in average. Thanks to our credit scoring algorithm, we attribute a risk segment to each borrower (from A to D) and determine his interest rate based on it.

Our portfolio is mainly constituted of A and B. But investors can select the segments they want to invest in, according to their risk / return appetite.

Klear credit grades

Is the technical platform self-developed?

Yes. Everything was developed in-house. The team includes 5 software developers and a designer. Our third co-founder is an IT architect with huge experience in handling core banking systems. We invested a lot of energy building the platform: in the front end to offer a great user experience, and in the back end to ensure a solid setup.

How reliable is the credit rating / credit history data available in Bulgaria?

It’s probably one of the countries with the richest set of available data. The credit bureau registers all the credits financed in Bulgaria, by banks and non-banks, with 5 years of history.

Besides we consult the National Health Insurance database, where we can check the salary and the employment history of any credit applicant. We also consult the Police database to check if the ID card is not stolen.

The founders financed the company by committing 1 million Euro from personal savings and collecting from family and friends. That is amazing – how do you feel about this achievement?

That’s great! It shows trust in the team, in our experience, in the project and common goal. We built something to last. We all have been very successful in our careers in the banking industry and now we want to do things differently, for the better and we believe we can. That’s the main drive for all of us.

Loic le Pichoux, CEO KlearWhat was the greatest challenge so far in the course of launching Klearlending?

To explain that we are NOT a new subprime or payday loan company, like the many other non-bank institutions in Bulgaria. To demonstrate that we are providing something better than banks, for both sides, borrowers and investors.

Can you please describe the market environment and regulation in Bulgaria?

The total consumer credit market is around 5 billion Euros. These loans are issued in the domestic currency, Bulgarian Leva (BGN), but it’s important to know that Bulgaria is in a currency board with the Euro since 1999 (at that time it was with the Deutsche Mark) and the parity has not changed since. So, there is almost no currency exchange risk, when investing in Klear loans in Levas.

Although there is no specific regulation for peer to peer lending, we decided to apply for a non-banking financial institution registration in the National Bank. We have this accreditation and it gives us the possibility to consult the National Credit Bureau.

Which marketing channels do you use to attract investors and borrowers?

Since one year, we have been providing online financial education tools (an online budget management application) and a blog where we regularly publish articles regarding personal finance. That’s an efficient inbound acquisition channel.

We are also very active on social media and we perform online advertising.

Is Klear open to international investors?

Yes, to citizens from the European Union and European Economic Area, who have a bank account opened in a bank from these regions.

Where do you see Klear in 3 years?

  • Having a visible market share in the consumer credit market in Bulgaria and operations in a few other countries. As we have worked in many before and are familiar with the specificity of their domestic markets.
  • Being recognized as a fair, transparent and social impact player, also helping people who cannot get a credit by providing them financial advice and support to solve their debt issues.

P2P-Banking.com thanks Loic Le Pichoux for the interview.

Interview: Wellesley Pitches to Raise 1.5M from the Crowd

wiseclerk

UK marketplace Wellesley is currently pitching to raise 1.5M GBP in a convertible from the crowd.

Interview with Graham Wellesley, CEO, Wellesley

What is Wellesley about?

Wellesley is a lending business. It provides an alternative for borrowers than traditional high street lenders. Our business allows us to meet the needs of two key underserved markets:

  • experienced mid-sized property developers who are building homes in the UK
  • investors seeking higher returns that can be achieved in deposit accounts who are willing to take a level of additional risk through a range of different products.

What are the three main advantages for lenders?

  • Lenders can achieve higher risk adjusted returns than are available in traditional deposit accounts
  • Property development lending is asset backed
  • Funding is being put to good use, helping to build homes in the UK

What are the three main advantages for borrowers?

  • They are dealing with a lending firm who specialises in property development
  • We are committed to very high levels of service and quick decisions
  • Each individual borrower is important to us

Wellesley is quite established in the UK marketplace lending sector. Why do your raise capital via Seedrs through a convertible now?

We want to raise more capital to enable us to invest in acquiring new customers and developing our technology. All of our external funding is retail rather than institutional. Raising further equity through a retail route will help us to build a business where strong alignment of interests between investors and shareholders will build a stronger company for the long term.

To which extend (if any) are equity investors covering capital losses on loans to p2p lenders vs the mini bond holders?

  • So far the board has chosen that the company (shareholders / equity investors) will cover the losses incurred by all other investors. This is at the board’s discretion and investors are all aware that they are taking risk in relation to property development lending. Investors continue to carry the risk of losses on both P2P and mini-bonds.
  • Wellesley aims to use the funding to expand its business, its marketing, human resources and IT development.

Wellesley originated about 80M pound YTD. Did you experience any effect of Brexit and what is your outlook for 2017? How do you see the opportunity of the IFISA market?

  • In the run-up to the referendum and in its immediate aftermath property development across “middle Britain” took somewhat of a pause. There are signs now that growth is returning to the market and the outlook for 2017 is positive as the key driver – the demand for more housing – shows no sign of reducing.
  • We continue to develop a product that meets the technical requirements of the IFISA market and will provide an update as soon as there is more to say.
  • We specialise in multi-unit developments, our average unit size is less than £500k. As a result we believe that we are well-placed to face any challenges that the UK residential housing market may face post-Brexit.

Are there any plans for international expansion?

At this stage, quite the opposite. We had started doing some lending in Majorca, Spain and decided back in the first half of 2015 that we would be better able to serve our customers through the economic cycle if we focused on our core expertise and competency in the UK market. Continue reading →

Interview: Flender Pitches to Raise 500K

wiseclerk 2 Comments

Flender is a UK startup (with background in Ireland) currently pitching to raise 500K GBP from the crowd.

Interview with Kristjan Koik, CEO of Flender

What is Flender about?

Flender is a peer to peer finance platform which helps businesses and consumers to borrow and lend money through their existing networks.

Businesses can leverage their customer base and strengthen loyalty; while friends become part of each other’s’ success. Flender does this while adding a new element of trust via social network connections.

Flender emphasizes the social relationships between borrowers and lenders. Don’t you think borrowers are hesitant to ask friends and connections for money?

The social lending market among friends, family and connections has never been formalized, which is crazy when you consider that this is a market worth over 3 billion EUR a year in Ireland and the UK based on independent research performed in September 2016.

Asking people that you know for money – and lending to them – is an awkward thing to do and is certainly an unreliable means of finance. Whether it’s to fund further study, grow a business or to fund home improvements, Flender will let you borrow from and lend to people with whom you have a connection much more easily.

For individuals, there is the satisfaction of helping others while earning more interest than a standard savings account while businesses can have access to funds faster and at the interest rate they prefer. Everyone wins.

P2P lending has evolved a lot over the past 10 years. Your model has a back to the roots touch to me. Do you see your model as a reinvention of the true spirit of p2p lending?

I believe p2p lending and the sharing economy is the future of finance.

We have all lent or borrowed money at some stage of our lives and will use some sort of finance in the future – be it mortgage, car leasing, credit card, deposit account or investments. Similarly, we all have people in our social circles and professional networks who have money to lend or are looking for finance. It makes no sense that rather than doing these transactions with people who you know and trust we would do these with complete strangers with whom we know little or nothing.

Flender is not trying to create a new marketplace. We are simply formalising existing massive social lending market and by providing a seamless user experience and having first- mover advantage we feel we can dominate this sector.

The pitch video

Flender positions itself as different to other p2p lending marketplaces. Yet you take these as benchmarks for valuations in an exit. Furthermore your expected margin is much higher than those of other UK p2p lending marketplaces. What is the reasoning behind this?

Yes, we are very different to other p2p platforms, but investors will initially want to benchmark against something with which they are familiar, hence our comparison to existing platforms. Continue reading →

Interview with Ivan Pellegrini, CEO of Borsadelcredito

wiseclerk 2 Comments

Ivan Pellegrini is co-founder & Group CEO at Borsadelcredito.it.

What is BorsadelCredito.it about?

BorsadelCredito.it is the first Italian p2p lending platform. We help creditworthy SMEs to obtain credit in just three working days while promising 5-7% return to our investors. So far, we disbursed loans for 4.3M EUR (as reported on our statistics page) boosting the savings of hundreds of lenders.

In a market context where about five million SME’s are facing strong difficulties in approaching traditional credit channels, P2P lending represents a breath of fresh air for both investors and entrepreneurs.

What are the three main advantages for investors?

For investors, accessing a digital marketplace represents an unprecedented way to obtain strong returns while supporting Italian SME’s. Overall, expected average returns range from 5 to 7% and, thanks to a strong diversification level (funds are divided among hundreds of firms) the risk of losses arising from defaults is strongly contained.

With BorsadelCredito.it our lenders invest in the Real Economy. The digital marketplace is the most efficient and attractive way for credit operations in the Italian enterprise framework: loan fund and SMEs financing opportunities represent one of the easiest investment options in the whole market.

What are the three main advantages for borrowers?

For the applying companies, forwarding a request is very easy: as for the lender, the experience is completely digital and way faster than the traditional credit channels. From BorsadelCredito.it it takes only 5 minutes to complete a loan request: in order to be evaluated, firms must have at least one year of activity, 50.000 EUR stream of gross revenue and no sign of adverse events from Credit Bureaus.

Funding requests are handled by our neuronal algorithms in a few hours and then forwarded to an experienced team of credit analysts, who overlook the firm’s statements and overall performance in 24 hours to send a final response: if the evaluation is positive, credit can be disbursed in just two working days, without the need to open a bank account or provide any guarantees.

Ivan Pellegrini, BorsadelcreditoWhat ROI can investors expect?

The ROI our investors can expect is very high and it’s around 5/7%.

Currently the average is 5.71% after bad debts and fees, much higher than what they would earn with the other traditional tools for investments. Last but not least we have a credit protection for our investors payed directly by borrowers.

Is the technical platform self-developed?

Yes, the platform is completely self-developed, as for our valuation models. We invest most of our resources (both in terms of time and money) in the development of efficient processes, workflows and credit scoring models (for example, we are now building a more complex Web-scoring model, which uses big data from the internet to give us a clear overview on how the web sees the evaluated company). Continue reading →