Important Update 11 March 2022
The following review was written prior to the breakout of conflict between Ukraine and Russia. The two key loan originators operating on Peerberry, Aventus Group and GoFingo both have significant operations in this region and this will likely impact their ability to repay investors. More information about latest events can be found on the Peerberry blog here.
The Russia / Ukraine conflict has created significant uncertainty, and the potential impact on the lending companies is not currently known. The following information contained in this review has NOT yet been updated to reflect the new developments. In the meantime we have temporarily suspended our star ratings until we have more visibility on the likely outcome for lending companies, and for Peerberry itself.
Peerberry review
Ratings
Loan types available
Personal loans
Payday loans
Development loans
Car loans
Loan characteristics
1-48 month maturities
Euro only
Buybacks
8 countries
Website and investment product features
Auto-invest
Manual selection
3 languages
What is Peerberry? How does it work?
Peerberry is a multi-lender P2P investment site based in Riga, Latvia. It launched in 2017 and has since grown quickly. Originally Peerberry was owned by the Aventus Group and only offered its own loans on the site. Since then the business has been acquired by a new group of shareholders, and new lenders have been added to the site. We recently published an interview with their new CEO Arūnas Lekavičius.
The Peerberry investment site is very simple to use. It has functionality that allows investors to either select individual loans on the primary market, or use an auto-invest tool. At the moment there is no secondary market. However, we don’t think that is an issue because most loans are only 1 month in maturity currently.
The auto-invest function has all the usual options found on other sites. This includes country, loan term, interest rate, and loan originator. Peerberry provides investors a weekly email that provides simple information about interest earned, principal received from investors, investments made, and cash held on their behalf. The site has good reporting functionality, allowing investors to see all activity on their account within a chosen time period, and it can generate tax statements.
Interest rates have varied over the years depending on market conditions and the level of investor demand. As Peerberry has become very popular we have noticed that rates have started to drift down a little but are still reasonable – typically around 9-10%. The majority of loans are short-term loans with buyback guarantees. However recently Peerberry has added some car loans, and also developer loans from two different real estate groups – Lithome and SL Baltic.
What we like
What we don't like
- Good track record - the site worked flawlessly throughout the Covid crisis. Buyback gurantees were honoured and withdrawals were processed on time
- One of the best designed P2P websites. Simple, beautiful and functional design
- Peerberry has recently started to add new lenders which will provide diversification opportunities
- All loans have a buyback guarantee. Loans are repurchased by the lenders, and principal and interest paid, if loans become more than 60 days overdue
- Website is available in English, German and Spanish
- Loan performance has been good so far - not many loans have been getting repurchased due to default
- The largest loan originator on the site, Aventus Group is very profitable
- Management team are willing to listen to feedback and provide good communication
- Site is popular with investors, which can result in some cash drag, where funds are not fully invested
- Auto-invest settings need to be checked regularly to ensure that funds are kept fully invested
- Some countries are higher risk, such as Moldova, Kazakhstan and Russia
- Interest rates paid have been falling
Risk and return profile
Conclusions on Peerberry
Most loans offered on Peerberry currently come from two lending groups – Aventus Group and GoFingo. The details of which lenders are part of which group is provided in our Peerberry lender ratings page. Other small lenders called Lithome and SL Baltic also list loans, which are connected to Lithuanian house building companies.
As most loans on Peerberry come with buyback guarantees, understanding the financial position of each lender is important. This is an area we that Peerberry has significantly improved recently, as it has provided business updates for each of its loan originators, and it has also shared additional financial information with us.
The Aventus Group was strongly profitable in 2020 with a net profit of over €21 million. Profits have continued to increase during 2021. We would suggest allocating investments most heavily towards the Aventus Group lenders operating in Poland, as we view this country as having less risk than others such as Kazakhstan and Ukraine. Some Aventus Group lenders appearing on Peerberry are extremely new and small. They all benefit from a group guarantee which makes them less risky than they would otherwise be.
The other lending main lending group is called GoFingo. It is a much smaller lending group and also has a mix of new and established lending operations. In early 2020 Peerberry announced that GoFingo had achieved an estimated net profit of just over €2 million in 2019.
What about the profitability of the Peerberry platform itself? Peerberry has made modest profits between 2018 and 2020 of up to €300,000 per annum. We think that is a reasonable result. More importantly, the site now has more than €60 million of loans outstanding on its platform. That is a valuable and important source of funding for a company like Aventus Group, and we think they would be willing and able to support the platform financially if it was ever needed.
Overall we feel that the interest rates offered are appropriate.
We think that Peerberry is a good option for European P2P investors who are looking to diversify their investments across more than 1 platform. We think there are better options though, such as Mintos or EstateGuru, to be an investor’s first P2P site. Why? Because Peerberry offers loans mainly from only 2 lending groups, one of which is small.
However, we do think it has a role for European investors looking to spread their investments across multiple P2P investment sites (which we would recommend). Peerberry operates an extremely simple and effective site. We have been monitoring and using it since it launched in 2017 and have been pretty impressed with our experience of it to date. Their website works well, is easy to use and has a great design. Customer service is also good.
We are not surprised by the success the growth and success that Peerberry has been experiencing. They have successfully added new lenders to their platform, which has provided investors with additional investment opportunities. Peerberry is now one of the largest P2P investment sites in Europe.
Investors should use the auto-invest function. We suggest setting minimum returns to at least 9%, and selecting the loans once they have reviewed the latest financial results and also our latest scores on our Peerberry lender ratings page.Once that is done, there is very little that investors will ever need to do, other than to check that their portfolio is remaining fully invested.
Overall we are positive about Peerberry, but we believe there is one area that improvements are needed. There are many loan originators that are new startup subsidiaries of the Aventus and GoFingo groups. We think that Peerberry could do a better job of explaining the group structures of both companies, more detailed financial information about the Aventus Group, and exactly how the group guarantee provisions work.
Up to 2% signup bonus
Peerberry has grown significantly over the last few years to become the 2nd biggest P2P site in Continental Europe. We have long been fans of it due to its ease of use, good interest rates and strong loan originators. Peerberry has just launched a bonus offer that equates to 2% for smaller investments, and scales to 1% for larger investments. Full details are on its site. A huge number of our readers have taken advantage of this offer so far.
Other sites to consider
Mintos is the largest P2P investment site in Europe. It offers an excellent range of investments including secured loans. Over 50 lenders list loans on Mintos
EstateGuru is an excellent site that offers loans secured on real estate. Rates are high - around 11%. Currently mainly focused on the Baltic region of Europe but with plans to expand into other countries.
Lendermarket is a new site that has been setup by Creditstar. Creditstar has been one of our highest rated lenders on Mintos for a long time. Rates are 12% which we think is good relative to the quality of the lending group providing the buyback guarantee.
Viventor is a similar site to Mintos, just smaller. Some secured loans are available. There are multiple lenders listed on the site, but the quality can vary (see our Viventor lender ratings for details).
October is focused on lending to small businesses in France, Spain and Italy. Rates are often a little lower than the other sites we list here, but some investors will like October due to the countries it operates in.
Bulkestate is a small but growing site focused on loans secured on real estate. It offers loans secured by real estate. Their rates are the highest in Europe for secured loans currently (11-14%)
Our legal page contains disclosures and the full terms and conditions of the use of the ExploreP2P site.
Good morning,
Would it be possible to give PeerbBrry another look? It would seem they have already repaid most, if not all, loans issued in Russia and Ukraine.
However it seems the loan pool is shrinking as I tend to have more money sitting idle here than on most other platforms
Hi Jose, yes we will soon – they’ve done a great job dealing with the Russian/Ukraine siutation
Hello
Could you comment a little more about the conditions of the bonus for small investors. I am an investor of Mintos but I would like to try to invest 10.000 Eur in Peerberry and I would like to know the conditions of the welcome bonus
Hi Fernando. The bonuses are: €10 for €500 investment, €20 for €1000, €30 for €2,500, €60 for €5000, and 1% for €10,000+. So in your case it would be €100.
Hi Oscar, what do you think about automoney.ua peerberry originator?. Do you have information about this company?
Hi Julio. Check out our new Peerberry lender ratings page! Hope it helps.
Mintos interest rate is falling quite a lot in summer. I looking forward to hear your analysis of Peerberry originatos. It seems that Peerberry has increased considerably the amount of originators. There are 22 at this moment
Do you have information of finantial information of each originator. It´s very important.
Regards.
Completely agree! We will publish something very soon. We are working on it, just waiting for some extra information.