Time for something new? Here's 5 new P2P sites
ExploreP2P publishes comparison tables to help investors see what’s available in the world of P2P investing across Europe, and our thoughts on each site. While we list many (60+) P2P sites, we have always excluded many P2P sites too. Why? Some have been excluded in the past because they appeared to be scams. Examples in the past have included Kuetzal, Envestio, Monethera and several others. Most of the sites excluded on these grounds have since proven to be frauds and have stopped operating. However, we continue to exclude a few sites for this reason – you can read our post here about how to avoid scam sites. We also have a policy of not listing any sites related to crypto or ICOs – too many are either very high risk or potentially fraudulent.
Another reason for a site not appearing on our lists can be that we are still monitoring it. This could mean we are looking at things like transaction volumes, website development, lending performance, and the experience of early investors. Often we will be having discussions with the management teams behind the scenes to learn more about them and their sites prior to listing.
Today, we have added 5 new sites that we think may interest some of our readers. Some sites have been operating longer than others. Some are more developed than others. Not all will be suitable or interesting for you. But rather than just add the sites to our listings pages, we thought it could be helpful to provide a brief summary about each one, and some of their strengths and weaknesses.
The 5 new sites:
EvoEstate is an ‘aggregator’ site. That means that all the investments listed come from other sites. It gives investors access to real estate related investments across 19 different platforms. The idea behind the site is that it allows investors to see many more deals than going to just one site. The management team of EvoEstate co-invest in many of the deals listed on the site to show that they have ‘skin in the game’. Investors can invest across many different platforms without having to open accounts at each one. Investor experience has been mainly positive so far. We have been impressed by what the EvoEstate team have delivered so far in a short space of time.
- Wide selection of investments across many different countries and investment structures
- Offers a secondary market for loans from sites that may not have their own secondary market
- Some platforms featured are difficult to open accounts with
- Creates an extra layer of 'platform risk' compared to investing directly
HeavyFinance specialises in providing equipment finance. It mainly provides loans secured on big (i.e heavy) farming equipment such as tractors and harvesting equipment. This equipment tends to be very expensive, which makes it suitable for lending against. The CEO and founder of HeavyFinance is also the founder of Lithuanian consumer P2P site Finbee, where he was CEO for 4 years. HeavyFinance only launched mid way through 2020 but has had early success, with over €1m of loans funded already. We think this site will be interesting for investors looking to diversify their P2P investment portfolios.
- Management team with experience of both P2P and equipment finance
- Regulated by Bank of Lithuania
- Asset class offers diversification of risk for many investors
- Rates are high - around 13%
- New site, so the team can't show their lending track record yet
LendSecured has identified the agricultural sector as an attractive niche that other P2P sites have overlooked so far. While the LendSecured P2P site is fairly new, the team behind it have been operating a lending business in Latvia since 2013. The loans currently offered on LendSecured are secured on agricultural land or small housing developments. In our discussions with the management team there we learned of plans to offer some interesting new types of structured agricultural loans that will be launched early next year. From what we learned, we feel that these could be very interesting for some investors.
- Strong demand for agricultural land in the region, supported by EU farming subsidies
- Capable and experienced management team
- Part of a larger group, which reduces any platform risk
- Investor funds are held by LemonWay
- Site is currently new and quite small. Will take time to develop fully
Brickfy is another aggregator platform that has launched this year. It currently offers access to loans from 8 different sites. Some are well known, like Bulkestate and Kviku, and others are less welll known. Brickfy plans to add more loan originators to the platform in coming months. The Brickfy team say that they perform some due diligence on loans that are placed on the site (although we think each investor should still perform their own analysis. Brickfy say that they will focus on offering loans to businesses and real estate opportunities, as they think that these have lower risk than consumer loans.
- Growing selection of loans and partners offered on the site
- Brickfy is a regulated financial institution (in Estonia)
- Investors can access 8 platforms with just one account
- Only limited supply of loans available currently
- Still very early days - will take time for the platform to increase volumes and reach scale
FutureBricks is a UK based P2P platform that provides funding to small and mid sized property developers. It started in 2018 and has funded 17 loans worth £3m. It is also currently raising equity on the Seedrs crowdfunding site. FutureBricks is most similar to another British P2P site called Blend Network. The average interest rate on Future Bricks so far has been 11%, with an LTV of 56%. The minimum investment is only £500. The team are currently developing partnerships with institutional funders, which should help them grow the number of loans featured on the site and help the platform get to scale.
- All loans are secured, and LTVs are sensible
- Good record so far
- High interest rates
- Loans are currently all sold out
- Site is small, needs more dealflow / activity
The referal link from Evoestate leads to Viventor. Can you provide me with the correct link?
https://explorep2p.com/sign-up-bonuses/
Hi Lasse, apologies, we will fix that. Please try https://c.trackmytarget.com/isgunx
Thank you. FYI the link in the text “this link” still links to Viventor
Thanks Lasse! Hopefully fixed (properly) now.
Hello! I would be curious why you exclude Swaper (for now) from your comparison tables. They are in the market for some years already and they are still online 😀 Recently they appointed a new CEO because they intend to grow, which I thought is a good sign. What are your thoughts on this?
Hi Claus. Yes we are still monitoring them. The loans on Swaper come from Wandoo Finance and we feel at the moment that the financial disclosures from Wandoo are not sufficient for investors to really know what the risk profile is.
Hello,
In your previous guide
https://explorep2p.com/losses/
you stated: “”Realise there are no prizes for being early””.
“”Can they get to scale? Are they good operators? These are all questions that it is impossible to know at the start. Even if they are willing to pay you a small incentive bonus for joining, it’s not worth the extra risk.””
Isn’t this article a contradiction?
A fair challenge Jmn! If we look at EvoEstate – it’s been 1 and 1/2 years since they first contacted us and we have had many discussions since. Many of the other sites listed have also been operating for quite some time now too, or the management team have strong track records, like HeavyFinance.
I agree with you. Most of the above mentioned platforms are very new and without any (or very little) proven track record. Furthermore, some teams don’t have a strong legal/financial background to carry out a due diligence properly or negotiate with loan originators in case of defaults. Regarding aggregators, I try to avoid extra layers of risks and invest directly in the loan originators. At this moment, and despite bonus offered, I would only jump in Heavy Finance and with testing money.
Right Choice Finance was listed on Grupeer. Now they are under “debt collection” https://www.grupeer.com/blog/status-update-next-steps-regarding-repayments-to-the-investors/
I don’t really like that Brickfy is having Rigth Choice Finance onboard. You are your thoughts on this?
Hi Lasse. I don’t think people are giving too much credibility to anything that Grupeer says right now. Rightchoice is also listed on Bondster, where they have published financials and an interview with management. The company is very small but seems stable. It would not be at the top of our list of loans to buy, but don’t think the Grupeer comments are too relevant / red flags.