Mintos

Best European Peer to Peer Lending Platforms | P2P Investing

November 2, 2018 by admin Leave a Comment

Peer to peer lending platforms in Europe have experienced staggering growth in the recent years. In this article you will find our review of the most popular European peer-to-peer lending and investing platforms. Many of these lending platforms are smaller compared to the big three in the UK (Ratesetter, Zopa and Funding Circle) but they keep geeting bigger, and one of the leading platforms in Europe - Mintos - has funded more than €4 billion in peer to peer loans.

The peer to peer industry changes every day, and the list will continue to be updated with new platforms!

Bondora

Bondora is also one of the more popular lending platforms. Over 88,872 people have invested over €311M and earned €35M. Start with a minumum of €1, and become finacially independant!

Use thier Go&Grow account to earn 6,75%* per annum. It is easier than ever - just add funds to your account and earn daily interest! The best thing about the Go&Grow account is that you can liquidate your with ease by just withdrawing your funds at any moment!

Bulkestate

BULKESTATE - it is the first platform of group real-estate investments and purchases in Latvia. Despite the fact that the head office is located in the capital of Latvia — Riga, the company works with real-estate objects in all three Baltic states. Bulkestate offers to earn with them, by investing funds in real-estate projects with annual return on investment of up to 15% and profit withdrawal period from 3 to 24 months. Additionally, the minimum investment amount is only 50 euros.

Crowdestor

Crowdestor is one of the most popular peer to peer lending platforms in Europe. Within two years the platform has managed to fund more that €18M in business loans, earning up to 21% for the investors!

The company offers many projects on a weekly basis, and you will always have a new project to invest in! For more information visit their website: www.crowdestor.com

Debitum Network

Debitum Network is a P2B platform which allows anyone to invest in business loans from as little as €50 and earn interest from 9 to 11 %. All investments carry an additional guarantee for all investments. Loans are assessed by independent 3rd party risk assessors. There are 0% fees on the platform for investors. All investments are accepted instantaneously. Debitum Network allows depositing of EUR and GBP, as well as cryptocurrencies of ETH and DEB tokens.

EstateGuru

EstateGuru is one of the leading a peer-to-peer lending platforms for property loans, where users can borrow and lend money to fund real estate projects. As of 2016 EstateGuru has funded more than €106M in real estate loans, the platform has 35,447 investors from 106 countries, with an average return for investors of 11,94%. All loans are secured with mortgages.

Mintos is one of the most popular peer to peer lending platforms operating in Europe. They provide retail investors with an easy and transparent way to invest in loans originated by a variety of alternative lending companies around the world.

PeerBerry

PeerBerry is a peer-to-peer marketplace offering an opportunity to invest in issued non-banking lenders loans from across Europe. The portfolio of loans on offer primarily consists of consumer loans originated by Aventus Group and its subsidiary companies.

Viainvest

VIAINVEST is a peer-to-peer lending platform offering private lenders/individuals and legal entities an opportunity to invest into short-term consumer loans originated across Europe. VIAINVEST provides investors an access to non-bank lending sector by creating a safe and transparent investment environment where investors are able to earn up to 12.2% p.a. on their capital. To maximize the investing experience VIAINVEST has developed several important features, such as a Buyback Guarantee and auto-invest option to make the investment process reliable, simple and seamless.

If you want to read more about the world’s best peer to peer lending platforms, read our previous article: “Peer to Peer Lending Sites → 24 of the World’s Best”

A fast-growing p2p loan marketplace from the Baltics conquers Europe

July 8, 2016 by John Carson Leave a Comment

This is an interview with Martins Sulte, CEO and co-founder of Mintos. We have previously reviewed Mintos in depth and now we get to learn more about the platform straight from the CEO.

Can you start by telling us what Mintos is about?

Mintos is a fintech startup. We operate as a p2p loan marketplace that allows investors to invest in various loans from a constantly growing number of loan originators. To put it in a broader context, Mintos marketplace functions similarly to the way Amazon does. While Amazon connects merchants selling goods to consumers, Mintos connects loan originators selling loans to investors.

By creating this service, the Mintos team offers investors an asset class that previously was not widely available — the opportunity to finance loans originated by non-bank lenders, who have traditionally funded loans using their own balance sheet. In our model, non-bank lenders become loan servicers, dispersing proceeds and collecting interest and principal payments from a borrower.

What has been Mintos marketplace’s track record so far?

Since its launch one and a half years ago, the company has seen great traction. More than 40 million EUR in funded loans have been traded via the Mintos marketplace. To date, 10 non-bank lenders have joined the platform; they provide loans in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. More than 8,000 investors from 40+ countries across the world currently use the Mintos marketplace.

What return on investments can investors expect?

So far, we have seen an average net annual return of about 12.5% for investments made through the Mintos marketplace.

We encourage investors to diversify their portfolios. By offering different loan products in different geographical locations, along with a low minimum investment of EUR 10, Mintos allows investors to easily build well-diversified investment portfolios. Investors can finance business loans, car loans, invoices, mortgage loans, and personal loans on the Mintos marketplace.

All loans on the platform are pre-funded by loan originators; investors can start earning from the moment they invest with no cash drag. Moreover, loan originators on the Mintos platform are required to retain a part of each loan on their balance sheet. This means they have “skin in the game” that aligns their interests with those of investors.

With the Mintos marketplace’s current origination volume of EUR 150 million per year, there are always plenty of loans available in which to invest. It is also crucial for us that non-bank lenders on our platform are experienced in underwriting; therefore we do our due diligence vetting potential loan originators before adding them to the marketplace.

How would you describe your typical investor?

About 70% of total investments come from Estonia, Germany, Latvia, and the UK. As more investors learn about Mintos, the balance is increasingly shifting to Western Europe, where saving and investing culture is more developed. Today, the Mintos marketplace connects investors from Western Europe with borrowers in the Eastern part of the continent, facilitating free movement of capital within Europe.

What brought you to the field of p2p lending?

I come from an investment banking background, having worked in the industry for six years before going for an MBA at INSEAD. Financing my MBA was actually my first brush with p2p lending. I borrowed from Prodigy Finance, a platform that provides funding to international postgraduate students attending top-ranked business schools, while also delivering competitive financial returns to institutional and private investors. After graduating from INSEAD, I was eager to prove myself an entrepreneur, and the peer-to-peer industry seemed to be a dynamic place with great potential.

Who are your investors?

Mintos is a venture capital-backed startup – the company closed EUR 2 million seed round from Riga-based venture capital fund Skillion Ventures in February 2016. Mintos’s owners are its co-founders, a venture capital fund, and employees who hold company stock options.

How are your operations regulated?

Mintos is regulated by Latvian legislation. Currently, no specific laws have been introduced regulating peer-to-peer lending, but the Latvian government is working to create a legal framework by the end of 2016. However, Mintos has applied for a license issued by the Financial Conduct Authority of the UK, and expects to obtain it by the end of this year.

Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?

We aim to be a serious player in the European market – one that provides a free movement of capital enabling integrated, open, competitive and efficient financial markets and services that work for the benefit of investors and borrowers.

We ultimately believe that we create favorable conditions for the growth of the whole non-banking sector, thus making funds more accessible to individuals and small- and medium-size businesses.

If you’re interested in joining Mintos, you can do so through our affiliate link here. This allows you to receive 1% of your investment credited to your account. This is paid in 3 installments for the first 90 days. The investment reward will be calculated after 30, 60 and 90 days from the registration date and be based on the average daily balance. Once you are paid after the first 30 days you will only receive an additional credit on increases to your initial investment.

Mintos Review | All You Need To Know

June 24, 2016 by John Carson Leave a Comment

With ROIs topping 12% per annum, it’s tough to beat Mintos right now, which is why this review is a necessary addition to the Peer Social Lending blog. Before we get into the nitty gritty of this Mintos review however, let’s tackle the basics.

Founded in 2015, the eastern European peer-to-peer lending platform has originated close to €40 million and counts +8,000 investors among its ranks. Average net annual return is +12% although myself and Wiseclerk are both making slightly more than that. And so will the equity investors who have funded the Riga-based fintech startup to the tune of $2.2million in venture capital.

As is the case with most peer to peer lending sites, the story of Mintos really begins with the credit crisis of 2008-09, when asset values of eastern European banks slumped by two-thirds. As a result, the banks shut their doors and loans became extremely hard to come by. This left the eastern European market wide open, allowing platforms like Mintos and Bondora to fill the gap left by the banks.

Key to understanding their success is the SEPA region which allows investors from around Europe to fund eastern European borrowers. Because of the Euro, lenders from any of the 35 member states can invest and make high returns. Unsurprisingly, in the face of 0.5%-1.5% interest offered by the banks, many German, French, and Swiss investors are grabbing the high-yield bull by the horns and flocking to the gates of Mintos.

As a result, Mintos.com receives around 210,000 visits a month from yield-hungry, yet safety-conscious investors, spurring on its already encouraging growth. And so far, this story is missing one key component: some loans on the platform are secured by the borrower’s real estate. This aspect has been key to allaying investors fears, who traditionally pursue more conservative investment opportunities, having had their fingers burnt on the stock market since the turn of the century. Be sure to check which loans are backed by real estate as it is stated on those particular loans.

With that under our belt, let’s take a look at the platform feature-by-feature in order to get a good idea of its quality and attractiveness for private investors like you and me.

Let’s get this Mintos Review started with the Loan listings

The loan listings represent the beating heart of any peer-to-peer platform. In Mintos’ case, that heart is beating to the tune of 3854 investment-ready loans listed in the Primary Market. For diversification-addicted lenders like me, this is the ideal scenario. Literally thousands of borrowers ensure that any lender can spread risk and protect his/her portfolio effectively.

You still carry the risk of regional economic turmoil, as all borrowers are either from Latvia, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia or the Czech Republic, but most loans are secured with real estate, so even if eastern Europe should face economic apocalypse, investors money is (relatively) secure.

Additionally, all loans on the platform are provided not by Mintos itself, but by third party loan originators. As a result, certain loan originators can offer a buy-back guarantee, which means that if the loan is delayed for 60 days, the loan originator repurchases the investment for the nominal value of the principal and the accrued till the date of repurchase.
Let’s take a look at the key metrics for investors:

Loan terms between 1 to 120 months
Loan amounts vary between €100 and €250,000
Interest rates typically range between 7% to 14%pa.
Monthly repayments
0% fees for investors on the primary market. 1% fee on any sale on the secondary market.
Minimum investment is €10
AutoInvest Tool is availabe
Open to anyone located in the SEPA region
~12% average ROI (according to website)

This is what the primary market looks like:

The shield visible in some of the “invest” buttons signifies those loans which come with a buy-back guarantee from the loan originator. These are my favourites, providing an excellent risk-to-return ratio, and giving my stressball some much needed alone time.

That being said, my conservative investment strategy coupled with relative newness on the platform, has resulted in this option not having been exercised yet. Wiseclerk on the other hand, who has been investing longer and more seriously, shares:

“Over 70% of my investment is in loans secured by buyback guarantees. So I don’t have to worry much about individual defaults risks of these loans but rather about the operator risk: will the loan provider be able to honor the guarantee? So far it works seamlessly. All covered loans that have gone 60+ days overdue have been reimbursed to me as promised.”

So what does an individual loan listing actually look like? Like this:

As you can see from the screenshot, the borrower, collateral, payment schedule and investment breakdown are readily available at the bottom of the page.

How good is the Mintos’ Secondary Market?

The secondary market forms the backbone of Mintos’ business model so I expected it to come at me all guns blazing. I was not disappointed. Very liquid, easy to use and relatively cheap, the secondary market is one of the best in the business.

Whenever a loan on my books approaches the 30 days overdue mark, I list it. After swallowing the 1% fee and offering a discount of around 3% to 4%, I still receive the outstanding principal plus interest back, which is substantially better than a default.

What about Mintos’ Auto Invest feature?

As the name suggests, Auto Invest automatically implements your preferred investment strategy across the available loan listings. The criteria you are allowed to specify are (click on the image to see its full size):

Interestingly Auto Invest does not invest in loans from the secondary market. This feature may well be added later, as many lenders with a bigger risk-appetite than me, look to scoop up discounted gems.

User experience on Mintos

With the core features out of the way, it is time to dedicate a little bit of space to the excellent usability of the platform. From the outset, Mintos is pleasing to the eye, and boasts a slick interface with unobtrusive load-times.

Once signed-in, the platform is easy to navigate and the F&Qs present answers to most of the questions users may have. On top of that, customer support responds to questions within a day or two, and visitors can leave questions and feedback from the homepage.

All-in-all, the platform is a real joy to invest on.

Mintos Review | Conclusion

Mintos’ is an attractive proposition for lenders located in the SEPA area. The average net annual return is higher than on most competing platforms, and the usability is excellent. The liquidity of the secondary market is encouraging, and the repayment rates are reassuringly high.

The Auto Invest feature works well, and the impressive number of loan listings allows investors to diversify to their hearts content.

Peer to Peer Investment | My Experiences

May 11, 2016 by John Carson Leave a Comment

The world of Marketplace lending seems to have fallen into complete disarray in recent times. Prosper had to lay off 28% of its workforce earlier this month, Lending Club’s CEO resigned, and OnDeck’s performance left many analysts disappointed.

It’s fair to say, that May has been a month to forget for US’ peer-to-peer lending platforms. Across the pond however, European platforms are providing a huge amount of fun for those of us who have taken the plunge with a peer to peer investment.

Today, I want to talk about the three European platforms I have been enjoying the most: Bondora, Bitbond and Mintos. Let’s get cracking!

(ALL images are Media Files. Simply click on them to magnify :))

Bondora | The King of Eastern Europe

My peer to peer investment experience on Bondora has been joyous. Founded in 2009 by the exciting young entrepreneur Pärtal Tomberg, Bondora is quickly establishing itself as a major player in the European Market. The platform boasts a net annualized return on investment of 17.56%, and over €63 million in loan originations. Although 17.56% seems a little high from where I am standing, the excellent Claus Lehmann has seen returns around the 17% mark.

So how do they do it? Well, Bondora seems to have nailed a specific niche: (mainly) Eastern Europe. Only borrowers located in Slovakia, Iceland, Finland - and the notable exception - Spain, can apply for a loan. Restricting their pool of borrowers, seems to have provided them with a great expertise on filtering out the great from the bad. (In fact, only two countries are represented in my portfolio: Estonia and Finland!)

As a result lenders located in the SEPA region can make their peer to peer investment, safe in the knowledge that they will make a return.

Initially, it seems that lenders couldn’t have it any easier on the platform. You simply add funds your Bondora account, set a desired bid size, choose your risk profile and activate your portfolio manager. As you can see from my Screenshot, I have opted for the “Balanced” approach which gives me an expected return of 14.88%. The funds will then automatically disburse into loans which fit your risk profile. Easy.

(By my calculations, I have received slightly higher returns than that. But I will not be sending a letter of complaint ;))

What more is there to know? Although the process of placing a peer to peer investment seems straight forward on the surface, it turns out to be quite a convoluted process if you care to dig deeper. As Lehmann puts it:

“With the introduction of new regulation in Estonia, Bondora now prefunds all loans and also keeps a stake in the loans (‘skin in the game‘). Manual bidding on loans is not as straightforward as previously because now investors can make bids, which are not binding until allocation happens.”

Importantly, this only applies if you do not activate your portfolio manager.

Another important feature for peer to peer investors, is the thriving secondary market Bondora offers.

Here, you can make a particularly cheap peer to peer investment. Subsequently, though the repayment rates are lower and the corresponding risk of default is higher.

Overall, Bondora is going from strength to strength and is providing a huge amount of fun to p2p lenders like me. Long may it continue.

Bitbond | The Future of P2P Lending

I first came across bitcoin peer to peer investing over Stu Lustmann’s excellent p2p lending blog. Specifically, it was his earning report for May which peeked my interest.

Fascinated, I started researching the bitcoin lending space, and decided to invest in Bitbond. By documenting my experiences along the way, I have tried to spark other traditional p2p lenders into giving it a shot.

But before we go into my experience on the platform, let’s take a step back to understand what Bitbond is really about and why I think it’s fascinating.

Founded in Berlin, 2013 by Radoslav Albrecht, the fintech startup has received ~€1 million in VC funding and has been growing at a significant pace for the last year or so. Now counting +30,000 users, the bitcoin lending platform specialises in providing small business loans to borrowers around the world. The international aspect of Bitbond is exciting, and is the reason why bitcoin is used.

By cutting the banks out of the process, lenders can place a peer to peer investment and borrowers can take out a loan regardless of location. The thought of supporting small business owners globally seemed pretty cool to me, so I started investing.

As I suspected, the more personal experience Bitbond offers has proven itself to be massively enjoyable. Currently, I am supporting an eBay powerseller from Portugal, an Indonesian Taxi Driver, and an Entrepreneur located in the Philippines.

On the flipside, the risk investors take on is substantially higher than on the other platforms mentioned here. Borrowers are often still becoming acquainted with bitcoin technology, which can also delay repayments by a couple of days.

Fundamentally though, my portfolio is looking pretty good.

Another important point, is Bitbond’s transparency. All investors are listed on the loan pages (with pseudonyms), and can communicate with the borrowers directly via the comments sections!

Overall, the investing process on Bitbond is more personal but less efficient than on Bondora.

You can however activate the AutoInvest feature, to automate your peer to peer investments, but I have chosen against this to maintain the human aspect of the platform.

Finally, you might be saying: “I don’t have bitcoin and don’t know how to get some, so peer to peer bitcoin lending isn’t for me.” Well, you’re entitled to your opinion, but buying bitcoin on Bitbond is as easy as transferring funds on Bondora. As long as you are in the SEPA region, you will be able to buy bitcoins directly on Bitbond.

For those of you located outside of the EU, use Circle or Coinbase to get your bitcoins at zero exchange costs.

I think bitcoin peer to peer investments will be massive in the future!

Mintos | The Rising Star of European P2P Lending

Significantly younger than both Bondora and Bitbond, Mintos, the Latvian p2p loan marketplace, was founded in 2015. Intriguingly, Mintos harbours some significant differences to other peer to peer investment platforms, because it brings together investors and loan originators! These include Mogo, Capitalia and Debifo among others. From an investors perspective, this makes the process a tad more anonymous but that’s not a KO-criteria for me.

Mintos is probably the least well known platform of all three discussed here. It’s relative obscurity belies its massive size however, with over 4000 loans listed in the primary market and a staggering +11,000 in the Secondary Market. With so many options, what can lenders expect from their peer to peer investment here?

(There are only five listed here because of the filters I have set)

Like Bondora, Mintos specialises in bringing European investors together with Eastern European borrowers. Below you can see their loan originations by country to get a better feel for the platform.

As per the industry standard, the interest rates for borrowers, depend on the quality as well as the purpose of their application. As you can see from the Screenshot below, in May of this year, “Invoice Financing” at 12.48% and a “Mortgage Loan” at 14.44% represent the low and high end of the spectrum in terms of interest rates.

What sets Mintos apart, is the very high level of security offered to Investors. Indeed, most loans on the plattform are either secured - ie. the borrower provides collateral - or come with a buyback option if the borrower is +60 days late on his payments.

As a consequence, the interest rates are lower than on the other platforms, and so is the potential payout to investors. Surprisingly Mintos does not (to the best of my knowledge) provide statistics with regards to the average ROI, but my personal experience has been ~9% pa.

Like this investor however, I think that Mintos could do with increasing the number of short term business loans available on the platform.

Overall though, Mintos is an excellent platform which I will continue to enjoy for some time to come!

Peer to Peer Investment | My Experience

With that under out belt, I hope I could shed some light on a few of the lesser known peer to peer investment platforms in Europe. As a takeaway, I would consider the following categorisation appropriate:

Bondora -> Small/Medium Risk -> Attractive ROI

Bitbond -> Medium/High Risk -> Very Attractive ROI and enjoyable personal touch

Mintos -> None/Small Risk -> Less Attractive ROI (but still ~10%)

Happy hunting 😉