Another silent month on my part. Sorry about that. When you live in a country such as Portugal, if you want to increase your income, you really need to work a lot. Over the next 3 months, I will be teaching students on the subjects of Management & Entrepreneurship at a local University. However, I still need to perform all my obligations in my company leaving me without the capacity to work on the blog as I wish. I will do my best to organize my workflow to publish this month.
Before starting I want to ask your support to fund the blog costs.
N26 Bank
You already know I love N26 Bank to manage all my P2P investments. By now it’s one of the most mature of the user-friendly and innovative challenger or neo-banks that have revolutionized the European banking market in the last few years. Last month I decided to subscribe N26 Metal to benefit from the 0.5% cashback on all my purchases. If you still don’t have your N26 account, this is a very simple way to support the blog, that I really appreciate.
Thank you for your support.
New P2P Platforms in the Market
Brickfy
Brickfy is an Estonian financial technology company that offers a lending marketplace to invest in business and property-backed loans with an average IRR of 12.49%.
Brickfy is operated by Brick and Mortar Digital Assets OÜ. Company authorized and regulated as a Financial Institution by the Estonian Financial Intelligence Unit with the license FFA000353.
HeavyFinance
HeavyFinance is a P2P marketplace that offers investors a new asset class: loans backed by heavy machinery. This is the first crowdlending platform in the world focusing on heavy equipment as collateral.
Laimonas Noreika, the company CEO was one of the founders of FinBee.
So, let’s check October 2020 numbers…
S4F P2P Lending Portfolio October 2020
Crowdestor
A lot of activity on Crowdestor. The secondary market is on fire, with investors leveraging this liquidity option to leave their investments with a loss while other investors take full advantage of the significant discounts available there. For true believers on the platform, this is a golden opportunity to make great deals.
A voting process is ongoing regarding specific projects affected by COVID-19.
The available options?
– Prolong the loan term, wait, receive capital with interest.
– Cancel this project, get principal back without interests.
I expect similar voting will take place for many other projects.
Personally, I’m reducing my position on the platform. The risk is too high for my current mindset and the significant overlap between lending and equity rounds demands a significant amount of time to study the investments and perform the necessary due diligence that I simply don’t have.
Crowdestor: New SME Automation & Updates
Crowdestor: Website Down
TFGcrowd
I cannot figure out how TFGcrowd works. Small amounts are paid to investors, but parts of the principal remain to be returned. I personally decided to leave the platform, but other investors state this to be the highest yield platform in their portfolios.
I recommend anyone thinking to invest in TFGcrowd to read carefully this post from Kristaps Mors.
Raize
Raize is the market leader among Portuguese P2P platforms. Last month they communicated to investors that from November 15th they will apply a 10% “success fee” over any interest received. The worst? This fee will be applied to active loans in the platform.
I believe this action will trigger a massive exit from the platform. Personally I’m slowly withdrawing along the time. I would like to have exited already the platform, but is not a easy task.
Mintos
A very active month for Mintos. A new rating model was presented that is creating confusion among investors. A new version of the Mintos app was released and updates on the outlook of several Loan Originators was shared. But the most relevant update is related with the decision of the platform to introduce Notes.
Key takeaways
- Loans on Mintos will be classified as regulated financial instruments, called Notes.
- One full Note will correspond to one full loan minus the skin in the game.
- Each Note will have its own international securities identification number (ISIN).
- Accrued interest for Notes will work similarly as for bonds and other debt securities.
- There will be in-depth prospectuses about the potential investments in loans (Notes).
I’m decreasing my exposure to Mintos in order to adjust my overall portfolio allocation to P2P.
Mintos: A Growing Investors Nightmare?
Lendermarket
I’m now waiting seven days until the 2% cashback is credited on my account. For investors that were able to take advantage of this, it was a great opportunity to increase short-term yield on their Lendermarket investments.
Another relevant note includes Creditstar Group AS Interim Report Q3 2020. Basically they have a sound organic growth, all numbers are in line, nothing alarming. However, remember that these are unaudited results and that even the audited ones are under scrutiny, as you can read on this post from Kristaps Mors.
I expect to decrease my exposure to Lendermarket over time, while the current loans are repaid.
Lendermarket: Quick Overview
PeerBerry
Even if my position on PeerBerry is residual, the platform maintains a great reputation among the community. Prove of that is the fact that the platform was able to return to pre-crisis levels: the amount of loans funded in October exceeded the amount of loans funded in February (the all time high for PeerBerry).
PeerBerry Transparency: The 2019 Annual Report
PeerBerry: Impressive platform performance during COVID-19
Moncera
I still did not invest on Moncera. Even if Placet Group is among the most solid loan originators of Mintos, I will wait and see what happens with the platform. Taking into consideration they are growing every month, more investors are joining and the offer is also expanding. The platform recently added Estonian loans, thereby making possible to invest in short-term loans as many investors prefer to.
If you want to create a Moncera account, you can now benefit from €25 as a sign up bonus. Use the code FB34OG3 upon registration, otherwise they will not be able to credit the bonus.
IUVO Group
October was a month full of activity for IUVO Group:
- The lawsuit against BBG loan originator is in motion but unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is taking more time than usual.
- Another lawsuit was initiated against CBC loan originator. However, an offer was presented for an out-of-court agreement, which could significantly speed up the collecting process.
- Ibancar, the Spanish loan originator decided to work exclusively with IUVO Group to manage their P2P fundraising activities.
- In September, IUVO Group signed a contract with AS Monify, stating that they will fully repay their debt to investors on the platform by installments within 3 months.
Even if I agree with the approach followed by the platform, I will decrease my position over time.
Swaper
I’m assessing Swaper but I must confess that is difficult to evaluate. The lack of transparency annoys me and the cash drag to invest lead me to reduce my position over time. However, I’m quite surprised with the loans performance, specially in Spain and Poland during this months.
Crowdestor: Website Down
Viventor
Don’t know what to write about Viventor. My funds are completely locked in the platform and I have no perspective of when I will have access to them. Right now my will is simply to withdraw my balance as soon as possible.
Over the last few months a series of emails demonstrated the confusion that is currently the overall operational activity in the platform and the activities of the current platform owner added a layer of complexity that I’m not willing to sustain in my portfolio.
ViaInvest
ViaInvest is among the most stable P2P platforms in the industry. Even if the user experience is quite terrible, in the end of the day what we want is performance. I’m considering the platform as a option on the next few months.
iban Wallet
During October iban Wallet was among the most discussed platforms in the industry, and not for good reasons. As you remember, when reviewing the platform I highlighted the lack of transparency about the financials, operations and business structure of the entire organization.
Kristaps Mors took the research seriously and you can read the results here:
As always, I appreciate the work done by Kristaps. I reach out to iban Wallet for a comment, but received an empty reply. A serious company takes this type of publications seriously, addressing the information and sustaining their position based on facts. Not answering is in itself an answer.
I decided to close my open position on the platform, and warn caution to any investors.
Iban Wallet: Platform Pros and Cons
Iban Wallet: Quick Overview
Robocash
Robocash remains one of the most stable P2P platforms in the industry. In the first half of 2020, it issued 1.6M loans worth $139.5M reaching $10.7M in profit and increasing the volume of retained earnings to $38.2M. This lead me to reopen my position.
Robo.cash: Among the post-COVID Era Winners
Kviku Finance
I’m still exploring Kviku Finance but the initial impression is quite positive. For a reliable loan originator of Mintos and IUVO Group, the fact that they decided to launch their own P2P platform shows the dynamic in the industry and what to expect from the strongest LOs.
Take full advantage of the initial €20 sign-up bonus.
EstateGuru
It is interesting to follow EstateGuru path. Recently and fr the first time a defaulted project was sold with loss for the original investors. It is now clear that EstateGuru is not eager to satisfy small investors any longer. They are more interested in the satisfaction of big investors and the platform shareholders. I will keep my position, assess how the recovery process evolves and then decide how to proceed.
Estateguru: Quick Overview
Bulkestate
The platform keeps promoting projects on a regular basis. This last month raised some confusion around the auto-invest feature limitations that does not discriminate between investment opportunities on equity vs mortgage. Investors would like to be in control of this decision.
New investment opportunity: “Amālijas Street – 3rd stage” with an annual return of 14% will be launched on Bulkestate platform. It will become available for investing on November 3.
The Latest Real Estate European P2P Industry News & Insights
Other P2P Platform News
Debitum Network
Debitum Network recently announced a new partnership with a loan originator from the United Kingdom: CubeFunder.
All investors who invest at least 500 EUR in assets from CubeFunder will receive an unlimited 1% cashback.
ReInvest24
Majaka 54 was the first development project of Reinvest24. The development was conducted by their own real estate team. Despite the challenges, all the Majaka projects have been exited successfully earning investors an average of 14% annual income.
Rendity
Now it is possible to invest into the new project “Meisenweg 6” in Graz with an interest rate of 6,85% per year and a term of max 30 months.
A total of 7 residential units will be built in the new building and 3 residential units from the conversion and extension.
CoinLoan
CoinLoan is hosting a virtual Halloween Pumpkin Contest from October 27th and till November 8th.
Prize: $300 for dinner for two.
Fraudulent P2P Platforms
For those that still think Wisefund is a legit platform… No. Wisefund is part of the fraudulent criminal groups that took advantage of the P2P industry to commit their crimes. Please check the publication below to learn how you can act now to fight this criminals back.
FastInvest: Time’s Up! A new investor legal action?
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2 comments
Very nice post, but way to long. And your story tells us, that “savings” is diametral to “speculating” on p2p platforms. I am missing the serious part of your portfolio! Good luck and stay safe!
Thanks GQ!
You are absolutely right. A long post that I wanted to avoid…
It is extremely difficult to address a full portfolio view in a serious manner.
The focus on P2P is based on the amount of effort required to keep myself informed on what is happening with this particular asset class and sharing that with others. With the limited amount of time I currently have even if my aspirations for the blog go over P2P I don’t have the capacity to do it.
Warm regards and stay safe as well.