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Estateguru raises 5.8M EUR Series A Funding

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Estateguru LogoEstateGuru*, the pan-European marketplace for short-term, property-backed loans headquartered in Tallinn, Estonia, today announces the successful closure of its Series A funding round, with investments coming from Switzerland, United Kingdom, Czechia, Austria, Germany and Cyprus.

The lead investor for the round is TMT Investments Plc, a UK VC, and a public company that was also an early investor in both Bolt and Pipedrive. Among other VCs, there are the Swiss VCs Verve Ventures and Swiss Immo Lab, and J&T IB and Capital Markets, the investment banking arm of the Czech investment bank J&T.

The total amount raised is €5,8M (ca $7M). This follows a successful equity fundraising round on the Seedrs* platform in May this year. The round exceeded its initial target by 260%. The campaign’s maximum target was achieved within just four days, instead of the initially planned 40-day-campaign. EstateGuru says it has been thriving thanks to retail investors’ support for the business model since the very beginning of the company, with 41% of new investors coming from referrals and 90% of investors doing so repeatedly. One in two borrowers returns to EstateGuru by taking out six loans in ?ve years’ time on average. This was also the reasoning behind the Seedrs round in May. EstateGuru states it believes in the importance and power of the community and considers it extremely important to give them a chance to participate in the equity raise.

‘We have an ambitious technology and expansion roadmap for the next few years, and the success of this fundraising round will position us perfectly to deliver on this and continue providing all investors and borrowers with the very best real estate financing platform. We are developing a modern ecosystem for market participants and believe that very soon, traditional financiers will also prefer to use our platform in order to stay competitive. The fact that the same investors who have invested in two of Estonia’s leading startups, Pipedrive and Bolt, have now chosen to put their faith in EstateGuru is the perfect affirmation that our business model is robust and that we are ready to seriously accelerate our growth,’ says Marek Pärtel, CEO and Co-Founder of EstateGuru.

‘We are happy to support EstateGuru in the new round. It solves important problems – attracting money to real estate and at the same time making it possible to invest investors’ funds at a profit and at the most modern level. According to various estimates, the p2p lending market will grow by 2025 from $ 350 billion to $ 0.5 trillion. We strongly believe in EstateGuru’s prospects’, – says Artyom Inyutin, Co-founder & Head of Investments, TMT Investments.

‘There is a significant SME financing gap in Europe and a strong investor appetite for high-yield investment products. EstateGuru is in a perfect position to take advantage of these two trends and become a global leader in real-estate backed lending.’ added Jo?o Duarte from Verve Ventures / Swiss Immo Lab.

Auxmoney Raises 150M EUR New Funding

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Auxmoney lgoGerman p2p lending marketplace Auxmoney* has announced a new funding round of 150M EUR raised from Centerbridge, Foundation Capital and other investors. According to a statement by CEO Raffael Johnen, who did not disclose the valuation of the round, Centerbridge now owns the majority of Auxmoney equity.

Auxmoney was an early innovator in p2p lending and is the only remaining German consumer lending p2p marketplace. Other past players have pivoted to different business models meanwhile.

Estateguru Raises 1.3M EUR from Speedinvest

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Baltic property p2p lending marketplace Estateguru* announced, that it has raised a 1.3M EUR round led by Speedinvest f. Speedinvest f is a focus fund launched by Speedinvest, targeting Fintech investments across Europe. Speedinvest will support EstateGuru in its geographic expansion across Europe.

Marek Pärtel, founder and CEO of EstateGuru, outlines the company’s mission to become the largest pan-European real estate financing marketplace: ‘Today, EstateGuru has become the largest platform in mainland Europe, showing an average annual growth rate of 100%. Simultaneously, we have discovered excellent opportunities to further increase our market coverage and it is for this purpose that we have drafted a clear technological development plan that requires a strong partner in order to be implemented successfully.’

Christopher Zemina, Investment Manager at Speedinvest, explains the background of the investment: ‘EstateGuru is the story of a small team that has achieved extraordinary growth without much external funding. The team has executed their plans and constantly outperformed our expectations. We are determined to support the company in its next stage of growth.’

Estateguru Speedinvest
Estateguru founder and CEO Marek Pärtel

Funding Circle Raises 100M US$ from Accel and further VCs

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Funding Circle raised 100 million US$ of equity capital in a round led by Accel Partners. The round also included other existing investors Baillie Gifford, DST Global, Index Ventures, Ribbit Capital, Rocket Internet, Sands Capital Ventures, Temasek and Union Square Ventures.

The company will use the funding to continue to consolidate its position, as well as to continue to invest in technology and talent.

Measured by new origination volume during the last months Funding Circle is the largest p2p lending marketplace in the UK. The company is also present in the US and in continental Europe. Last week the British Business Bank committed to lend 40 million GBP to British SMEs through Funding Circle.

Funding Circle has now raised 373 million US$ in equity capital. The previous round was a 150M US$ in 2015 round led by DST Capital.

Smava Raises 34M US$ Series C

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smava-logo-2016German credit broker Smava today announced that it has closed a 34 million US$ investment which was led by growth investor Runa Capital, with additional participation from Verdane Capital and mojo.capital. Runa Capital is a venture capital firm with other investments in Zopa, Lendingrobot and Lendio. Verdane Capital is a Scandinavian private equity firm. Existing investors including Earlybird Venture Capital also participated in the investment. This series C round follows the previous round in 2015 which was 16 million US$. In total Smava, which launched in 2007, has raised about 64 million US$ so far.

Smava wants to use the funding to expand the customer base, hire additional talent and continue enhancing our scoring technology according to CEO Alexander Artopé.

Smava connects private borrowers with a broad selection of banks and private investors on its marketplace. Smava offers personal loans ranging from 1,000 to 120,000 Euros. Continue reading →

P2P Lending Marketplace Afluenta Raises 8M Series B From IFC and Elevar Equity

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Afluenta LogoAfluenta, headquarted in Buenos Aires, announced today the completion of its Series B funding round from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector institution of the World Bank Group, and Elevar Equity, a venture capital firm. IFC and Elevar Equity are investing 4 million US$ each.

Afluenta seeks to disrupt the traditional financial services industry, cutting out middlemen and using proprietary technology to transform the process of applying for a loan, thus facilitating access to financing. Afluenta says it offers borrowers a simple, affordable and less bureaucratic experience, while delivering better yield for individual and institutional lenders.

A pioneer in the region, Afluenta plans to use the proceeds of the Series B financing for accelerating its network expansion plan across Latin America. Launched in Argentina in 2012 and in Peru in 2015, Afluenta plans to launch new services in Mexico, Colombia and Brazil in the next 12 months to consolidate as the first pan-regional player of this new and disruptive alternative financing. Continue reading →