September has been an excellent month, with the highest returns since January 2019 (9.1% compared to 7.3% in August). For the first time in months, the profitability of all types of platforms has improved: P2B Crowdlending platforms (7.6%), Real Estate Crowdfunding platforms (5.0%) and P2P Crowdlending platforms (7.6%).

I attribute the improved results in real estate crowdfunding to the reduction in my positions in the Spanish market (Housers and Privalore) together with the peak in returns of Estateguru.

Same as my income decreased in P2P last month due to the drop of the ruble against the euro in early August (I am exposed in Mintos and Twino), September’s rise is due to the reverse fluctuations, as seen in the chart (below). Yet, ultimately, my investments in rubles remain highly profitable.

Table of Contents

Portfolio Summary

• The positive surprise of the month was Estateguru, which reached its highest monthly return since I started using the platform.
• The biggest disappointment has been CrowdEstate, which has gone from an immaculate history of payments to 9 delayed projects at once.
• I have reached 34 platforms, after starting to invest in TFGCrowd. Another P2B platform similar to Kuetzal, Envestio or Crowdestor with really attractive interests and a history of 22 projects already funded. And Buyback!
• I have also begun to invest in Mexican pesos (MXN) in Mintos.
• For my next addition, I am exploring platforms with a social component, development aid, or invest in environmental and clean energy projects (such as Trine). I’m looking at Agrikaab and LendaHand. Any experience with them? Any other such platform to consider?
• I continue with my divestment on platforms that I’m not completely convinced about (Fellow Finance and Finbee) In Mintos (overrepresented in my portfolio and currently offering very low interest rates) and real estate platforms in Spain (Housers and Privalore). I increased my positions only on my most recent platforms.
• The best platforms in terms of XIRR are 1) real estate: Bricks & People (now operating through the SociosInversores.com platform) and Estateguru; 2) P2B: Envestio and Flender; and 3) P2P: Finbee, Grupeer and Twino.
• The best monthly returns were 1) real estate: Estateguru and CrowdEstate; 2) P2B: Envestio and Kuetzal; and 3) P2P: Twino, Mintos and Finbee.
• To compare all platforms, check my Comparator

1. All interests are calculated before deducting taxes.
2. For Mintos, I present the combined returns (all currencies, taking into account the exchange rate), as well as the return rate separately for each currency (without applying the exchange rate).
3. The yellow shading shows that the returns will surely end up being lower because there are unpaid or delayed projects without a final decision.
4. Gray figures for platforms that are still too fresh in my wallet to give a realistic idea of the ​​XIRR.

Delays and defaults

• CrowdEstate has transitioned this month from all punctual payments to 9 delayed projects. Really worrying. Some are different tiers of the same project (before I stopped investing in multiple tiers).
• The situation in Housers still does not improve because of the slow down of the property market in Spain. As to Privalorealthough now all my investments are delayed, two have sold two this month. Inveslar accumulates 2 delays of just a few months (compared to 4 last month); no defaults yet.
• Flender increased from five to six defaults and Brickowner remains with two delayed projects.
• The situation in Estateguru (7 defaults) does not worry me much, because Estateguru is proving very effective when it comes to recovering defaulted projects: already four recovered …
• Linked Finance increases to 9 defaults (6 last month) while delays stay in 7.
• The delays and defaults of Finbee are within the expected, being a platform without Buyback. The case of Fellow Finance is much more worrying, given that the defaults are not compensated so far with the profitability of the active loans. Luckily I do not have too much invested.
• To compare all platforms, check my Comparator.

*Variation in the number of active projects from last month; I only include platforms without Buyback; Green if the parameters (delays and defaults) have improved compared to last month and red if they have worsened.

** NEO Finance does not allow to check for historic defaults, i.e. once sold (with penalty).

Real Estate Crowdfunding:

Brickowner

In Brickowner, since all the investments are long-term and paid in full at the end of the project, my profitability remains at zero (since I started operating with the platform in May 2018). In April, I experienced the first two delays.

I will not invest in new projects until one of the (5) projects I invest in gets reimbursed.

After rapid growth in 2018, Brickowner has opened an investment round in 2019 on Seedrs.

You can read the profile card of Brickowner here. When registering, you will receive £ 50 (within 30 days after a project is financed) when you use this LINK.

Brickstarter

One of my August additions , Bricktarter is a Spanish platform that invests especially in Andalusia (south of Spain). Unlike other real estate platforms, they specialize in managing tourist apartments, analyzing data from sites like Airbnb, Booking, HomeAway, Idealista to know the profitability of a property. The minimum investment is 50 EUR, and you receive interests (5%) while the project is being financed, which it seems to be no more than a couple of weeks. Bricktarter reforms and decorates the apartment, which once completed, is rented to tourists. After a variable time, the revalued apartment is sold and capital gains are shared among all investors, in addition to the regular gains already obtained from renting. The XIRR obtained are reportedly around 10%. Brickstarter has been operating for some time and several projects have already been sold.

In September I invested in two projects and there is already another one announced for October. No payments yet.

Investors who use the code BRICKS during registration with this LINKwill get 15 EUR extra for investing and 0.5% cashback during 90 days. The code is valid until further notice.

BulkEstate

In Bulkestate, being all investments long-term and paying in full at the end of the project, I saw no returns until December, when my first two projects ended. The return rates are excellent (always above 13%) and historically there are 0% defaults, so my strategy is to continue investing in each new project.

I have invested already in 40 projects , 15 of them already refunded.

You can read the technical sheet of Bulkestate here. When registering, if you use thisLINK I’ll receive a small commission.

CrowdEstate

Until now all projects were paid punctually. The platform has gone from an immaculate history of payments to 9 delayed projects at once. Some are different tiers of the same project (before it stopped investing in multiple tiers). Really worrying.

The XIRR offered by CrowdEstate, taking into account just the return rates of already reimbursed projects (33) is 14.5%.

My strategy is to continue investing in each new project, except those funded in several stages ( “Multiple rounds investing”), as I believe it goes against the principle of diversification. Basically it would mean investing several times on the same project.

You can read the technical sheet of CrowdEstate here. When registering, if you use thisLINK I’ll receive a small commission.

Estateguru

In EstateGuru, August has been the month with the best performance ever: 15.6%, almost double the XIRR of the platform. Various projects were reimbursed this month, so my guess is that profitability will return back to the usual values ​​next month. The immediate consequence of all these reimbursements at once has been some Cash Drag. Delays and defaults remain in their usual numbers.

Estateguru continues to be a tremendously active platform. I have already participated in 506 projects, of which 158 have already been completed.

My strategy is still to invest in each new project, except in those funded through several tiers (in which I only I invest in one, usually the first).

Estateguru announced in August that they will be offering a 0,5% cashback on all investments starting from €1000, and a 1% cashback on all investments starting from €10 000 made into loans displaying the Cashback sign from August 28 till September 30.

Estateguru published in August its 2018 annual report. To date, the volume of loans issued has been doubling every year, and EstateGuru has established itself in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Spain and Portugal, with more than 850 loans issued amounting to €133 million. EstateGuru has over 27 000 investors of varying profiles hailing from 106 countries. You can access the report here.

In May, EstateGuru announced that investors have provided more than €113 million to Baltic businesses. Over 23,000 investors have joined the EstateGuru platform. More than €6.8 million interest earned by investors. Also, the historical LTV for all funded loans remains under 58%, showing the conservative nature of EstateGuru’s management..

You can read the technical sheet of EstateGuru here. By registering with thisLINK, you’ll receive 1% of the amount invested during the first month and 0.5% the following 2 months (offer valid until the end of October).

EVOEstate

EVOEstate is still too recent to present many results. I started investing in August. EVOEstate allows you to invest in loans and capital projects from real estate companies across Europe, including many of those I already use: Brickstarter, Reinvest24, Inveslar, Bulkestate and Crowdestor. I plan to use it only to diversify on other platforms not already in my portfolio without having to open a new account: Nordstreet, Bergfurst, Urbanitae, Norbalta or Re-Lender. Of all the opportunities, a small section includes those in which EVOEstate has invested its own funds (“skin in the game”), which are the most recommended. So far, the platform has offered projects in 10 countries (including in the United States), from 6 to 60 months and with annual returns between 6 and 16%.

In these two first few months, I’ve invested in 6 projects, 3 in August and 3 September.

Register with thisLINK and you will receive EUR 15 gift after making the first investment.

Housers

The situation continues to be worrying in Housers. Most of the fixed-rate projects with defaults have reached agreements to new payment schedules that include late payment interest. Savings or investment projects that used to be paid even several months ahead of schedule are now systematically delayed. There are 13 such delays now. I attribute this situation to the slow down of the real estate market in Spain in large cities, particularly Madrid, where Housers offers more than half of its projects.

Consequently, I’ve decided to change my strategy: reduce my investments to 100 euros per project, sell in the secondary market and gradually reduce my positions, which are largely overrepresented (35% of all my crowd investments).

In August, for the first time since I use Housers, a project (Catarroja) did not get fully funded, so Housers had to return the invested funds to investors. Another bad sign perhaps?

In August, Housers launched a new direct communication channel (CCD), which is basically the secondary market where one can buy and sell shares. It’s a bit cumbersome having to register manually for each project one by one (122 in my case!). The good news is that now it’s allowed to sell at discount or premium. More information (in Spanish) here.

In May, Housers turned four years old. Housers finances projects in three countries (Spain, Italy and Portugal), has more than 106,000 registered users on the platform from 155 different countries. Investors have invested in the platform more than 83 million euros and the promoters have returned more than 28 million Euro between yields and returns of capital.

You can read the technical sheet for Housers here. Register with thisLINK and you will receive 25 EUR Gift after making an initial investment of at least 50 EUR.

Inveslar

In Inveslar, most projects are quite long term, so the benefits are mainly from the rentals.

I have invested already in 22 projects, 5 of them already refunded.

Inveslar, like Housers, seems to have definitely shifted in terms of the type of projects offered to fixed rate mortgage loans, as opposed to the savings or investment projects they used to offer.

Inveslar announced in August that they are in the final phase to be able to publish projects with regulatory coverage within the framework of participatory financing platforms. As of August 30, all the projects published will already be regulated by the law that protects the PFP.

You can read the Inveslar technical sheet here. Register with thisLINK and you will receive 25 EUR Gift after making an initial investment of at least 1000 EUR.

PrivaloreP

Privaloreoffers only investment opportunities (rehabilitation), which translates into very unreliable returns. The platform hasn’t commercialized any new project since February, so I suspect that they have stopped their crowdfunding activities and will focus on other financing modalities. So the only thing left is to wait for the refund of my last three active investments (all delayed for more than a year) and say goodbye to Privalore.

In September, two of the projects were sold, with pyrrhic benefits of less than 1% IRR. I can consider myself lucky not to have ended with losses in view of the long delays.

Reinvest24

Reinvest24 is a real estate crowdfunding platform, whose projects generate benefits for both rent and capital gains when selling (none yet).

It is too early to judge. Generally satisfied, although I only managed to invest in two projects, which are financed very slowly (2-3 months). To accelerate the funding process, the latest projects are also financed through EVOEstate. Some of the more recent projects generate profits from the time of investment before the project is fully funded. Nor is there a large supply of new projects, although the platform has already financed 9 projects in its short history with estimated return rates that range between 11 and 15%. Another downside is the 2% commission charged by investing, meaning I currently have negative returns (-3.8%).

When registering, if you use this LINK I’ll receive a small commission.

Crowdlending P2B:

Crowdestor

Crowdestor is a platform similar to Envestio and Kuetzal in terms of performance and profitability. After 6 months, I have invested in 27 projects, with returns between 12.8 and 20.7% and periods of 2 to 24 months. Projects are financed quite quickly, between a few hours and a week. I’m very satisfied. In fact, I regret not having started investing before. The only downside is perhaps that its growing popularity results in projects being financed in a few hours sometimes, which together with the lack of Autoinvest makes it easy to miss them if you are not very attentive.

When registering, if you use this LINK I’ll receive a small commission.

Envestio

Envestio It remains the platform with better rate of return (17.9%!). Please note that many of the new opportunities that are appearing are actually new funding tranches of the same project (to thirteen sections), so investing in them, we are not diversifying.

After a few months with almost no new projects, the situation finally changed in July and in the recent months the platform is again offering 2-3 new projects each month. Considering the returns offered and Buyback (!), I intend to increase my position (hoping that the offer will increase).

You can read the data sheet of Envestio here. Register with this LINK and you will receive a bonus of EUR 5 to 24 hours of the first deposit at least 100 EUR, plus an additional bonus of 0.5% of the amount invested during the first 270 days.

Flender

The number of defaults of Flender has increased to 6 after remaining at five for several months. Although it is still high (6.7% of all projects), it’s all relative, since it reached almost 10% in April. The defaults are not yet recorded as losses. We will still have to wait (probably) several months before knowing how they resolve. Flender has started legal activities to recover them (estimated at a 35% probability). I understand that it falls within the norm, but it’s the highest default rate of all platforms I invest in, except for P2P platforms without Buyback.

The monthly return rates range from 7 to 10%. However, due to some really generous promotions (welcome bonus 36%; August 2018 – 68%; and February 2019-37%), the XIRR of Flender is 14.9% – the second highest of all P2B platforms, only behind Envestio.

You can read the Flender technical sheet here. Register with thisLINK and you will receive 0.5% of the amount invested during the first 30 days.

Kuetzal

Kuetzal is a platform similar to Envestio and Crowdestor in terms of performance and profitability. After 5 months, I have invested in 13 projects, with returns between 14 and 21% and periods of 12 to 36 months (especially 12 and 24). Only one new project in September. Some take a little longer to get fully funded, but for now the payments are timely and in September I have already reached a monthly return of 15.7% (in a clear upwards trend). It’s still too early to evaluate the platform, but for now I am really satisfied.

When registering, if you use this LINK I’ll receive a small commission.

Monethera

Monethera was one of the August additions to my portfolio. It is a platform similar to Envestio, Kuetzal and Crowdestor in terms of performance and profitability. Monethera started in 2017 as a private investment fund. It was launched in 2019 as an online crowd-investing platform. Their projects focus in four core areas: Real Estate, Business Growing, Organic Farming & Green Energy, Logistics and Technologies. Up to now, they’ve already financed 8 projects with very attractive returns (18-21%) and 3-12 months long. The platform will buy back your projects with a 5% penalty. I have managed to invest in all but the first (so, 7 total).

Register with thisLINK and you will receive a bonus of EUR 5 plus 0.5% of the amount invested during the first 90 days.

Linked Finance

The Irish platform is the most active by far of all P2B platforms I use. At least it was until August. With the Summer holidays, the number of new projects was reduced dramatically (only seven in August). The situation improved in September with 15 new projects, but still far from the 28 projects per month that the platform used to average. I decided to withdraw the Cash Drag I accumulated as a result. Even so, yields continue stabilized at about 8%, and the platform reassured me that after the summer, the level of activity will resume.

Linked Finance is one of my favorite platforms. 9 defaults (of 557 projects) and 8 delays. My intention is to continue investing in all new projects.

Linked Fiannce announced in August that they will be making some changes to their regular reporting in order to provide lenders with more useful insights. The new statistics section will include a much wider range of metrics and insights with a particular focus on portfolio performance and returns. They will move away from a standard quarterly report to more dynamic data that lenders can access in real-time whenever they want.

Also in August, Linked Finance was shortlisted in the “Best Peer to Peer Lender” category in the Investment & Wealth Management Awards (a UK award).

In June, Linked Finance announced that they had reached €100 Million in total lending. The first half of 2019 was a record period for the platform. Here are some of the key market place metrics: total lending 23.7 Million EUR; 325 loans; Average loan: 72,834 EUR; Average return rate: 9.6%.

October

The only problem of October to date are the five projects in the process of judicial recovery (3.2% of the total), on top of four delayed projects that seem to be following the same path. Monthly returns continue to vary greatly from month to month depending on when the delays and defaults are computed, and the returns remain (marginally) negative (-0.34%). On a positive note, to clarify that, unlike other platforms, October provisions 100% of the amount (since the judicial recovery processes take a long time and the result is unknown). Provisions are potential losses and over time some or all of the amount due may be recovered. The rest of the platforms do not consider such losses until the judicial recovery process ends. Hopefully there will be no more setbacks and my XIRR will gradually recover.

I have decided to stop making new contributions until I have a clearer picture how the defaults evolve. Until returns do not become positive. I will just reinvest the principal returned and interest. I have also reduced each investment to the minimum allowed (20 Euro).

The Euro amount of each project tends to be quite high, so, despite the absence of AutoInvest, there is more time to invest.

You can read the technical sheet of October here. Register with thisLINK and you will receive € 20 to lend on projects when investing at least 500 EUR.

TFG Crowd

TFG Crowd is the latest addition to my portfolio (in early September). It is a platform similar to Envestio, Kuetzal, Monethera, Wisefuld and Crowdestor in terms of performance and profitability. TFG Crowd has been involved in commercial financing since 2015, but the crowd-lending platform is still very young: 2019. In this short period, they have already financed 19 projects with very attractive returns (8-19%, almost all with 17% returns) , 6-24 months, and very informative descriptions of the projects. And they offer Buyback guarantee!

In less than month, I have invested in three projects and have already reached 10.9% XIRR.

When registering, use this LINK I’ll receive a small commission.

Trine

Trine is one of the latest additions to my portfolio (August). It’s probably one of the most original and exciting platform to invest in. It allows people to invest in solar energy in growing markets, i.e. the developing world. This allows you to earn a profit while making social and environmental impact. Trine partners with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Swedish International Cooperation Agency (SIDA), which, to my eyes, adds much credibility to their proposal. Indeed, Trine, through its partnership with UNDP contribute towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7- affordable and clean energy, and improve the quality of life in rural communities. Read more here.

Basically, you choose a loan to invest in, or set up Monthly Investments. Each loan is a bit different in terms of impact, location, size and risk. You decide how much to invest from €25 minimum. When the loan is fully funded, your money is transfered to the borrower, i.e. solar partners, who sell and distribute solar products to their customers. If the solar partner succeeds to repay the loan you’ll get back your investment with interest. You can expect repayments approximately every three months. A big plus is that some loans are partly covered by Investment Protection in case it fails (provided by SIDA). So far, Trine has funded projects in 14 countries.

So far, I’ve invested in 4 projects in Guatemala, Kenya and Nigeria, with interests up to 8% (or even higher when you invest over 1000 EUR). While the interests are not that high compare to other platforms, at least for me, that’s compensated by far by the good feeling of investing your money in a good cause, while reducing my carbon footprint. In my case, my footprint will be 20.3 Tons of CO2 once the projects get operative!

If interested, you will get 10 EUR back when registering through my LINK.

Wisefund

Wisefund is a new addition of the month of August. It is a platform similar to Envestio, Kuetzal and Crowdestor in terms of performance and profitability. It started operating in 2019 in Estonia. So far, they have already funded 8 projects with very attractive returns (17.3-19.7%), some in more than one stage, 4-10 months in duration … and Buyback! The platform will repurchase its projects with a penalty. I have managed to invest in 6 of them.

Register with this LINK and you will receive 0.5% of the amount invested during the first 180 days.

P2P Crowdlending:

Dofinance

In Dofinanceafter 6-7 months with loans at 9% maximum, loans at 11% are back since April. VIP Dofinance investors can get up to 12% (1% extra) during the first 90 days (10% VIP status) using my promotional LINK .

And in September, a new offer: all new investments made until November 1, 2019 (with a minimum term of 6 months) will get a 1.5% cashback bonus (CashBack). This means that now with DoFinance it is possible to earn up to 13.5% per year. This offer will be valid for all programs, except 4% and 5% automatic investment programs. All the investor must do is to transfer new funds and make a new investment. The bond is usually added to the investors account in up to two business days after the investment has been made.

Dofinance may not be the platform with the highest profitability, but it represents the maximum of simplicity to operate. Once the objective profitability and the term have been chosen, there is nothing left to do other than wait for the interests to arrive. In addition, monthly returns have followed an upward trend that started in January, and since July, they exceed 10%.

In September, Dofinance shared the latest Alfa Finance Group management report, where you will find the results and achievements of the first half of 2019 and plans for the next reporting period (here).

Dofinance in numbers: In June, there were 3,900 registered clients, 40% of German investors, followed by Spain (22%), Italy (11%) and the Netherlands (10%). The average investment amount was 2,695 euros and an average period of 6.8 months investment, with a 9% automatic investment as the most popular investment program.

You can read Dofinance’s technical sheet here. Register with this LINK and you will receive an extra 1% return during the first 90 days (VIP status).

Fast InvestF

Fast Invest is one of my favorite platforms. Despite that since February there are no 15% loans, the returns keep an amazing regularity around 14%.

As of July 22, the average interest rate stands at 12.4%, 33.00 new users were registered and the investment volume grew to € 26 million.

You can read Fast Invest’s technical sheet here. When registering, if you use thisLINK I’ll receive a small commission.

Fellow Finance

Very disappointing results for the moment. Interest rates are really attractive (up to 55%!), but without Buyback, so I’ve been a bit more cautious investing than with other platforms. As of today, the many defaults do not compensate for the higher returns offered, leaving me at the end with negative returns, at least for now. As to my strategyas they offer no Buyback, I have invested only in loans with interest rates above 48% and always the minimal amount, which in the case of Fellow Finance is quite high (25 EUR). I must say that there are other less risky loans, which surely would have resulted in a better performance than my (so far) failed investment strategy. It is a complex platform, and customer service is not particularly good, so I have many doubts about how it works.

Since May, I no longer invest in new loans with the idea of decreasing my position and eventually leave Fellow Finance. Since July, I’ve started withdrawing funds.

You can read Fellow Finance’s technical sheet here. When registering, if you use thisLINK I’ll receive a small commission.

Finbee

Although the yields obtained with FinBee are so far excellent (a XIRR of 16.3% selecting only loans above 18%), being a platform without Buyback, I am still awaiting how the platform will evolve medium-long term once the (many) defaults stabilize. Delayed (0-90 days) and defaulted (>90 days) loans account for 16.4% and 11.9% of my portfolio, respectively.

The recovery rates of loans in arrears are 56.15% of as of 2016 and 40.21% as of 2017. The collection process has not ended, so these indicators should continue to improve in the future. However, for investments after March 2019, FinBee announced that it will compensate 30% of the loans in arrears. Doing a quick calculation, this implies that profitability, once the defaults begin to realize, will be reduced considerably below what’s currently offered by platforms with Buyback (7-8%?), So since June, I have stopped reinvesting profits and started to withdraw them from the platform.

In August, Finbee has finally updated its platform. I have to say that it is now much easier to understand, using the most common terms and parameters in the sector. Before it was really confusing.

You can read Finbee’s technical sheet here. When registering, if you use thisLINK I’ll receive a small commission.

Grupeer

GrupeerOne of my favorite platforms, with consistent results and profitability always between 13 and 15%, although loans’ average interest has decreased and we no longer see loans at 14 or 15%.

The drop in return rate in August to just 10.8% (still not clear why) has been compensated in September with 15.4%.

In September, a new loan originator joined from Kenya. e-Mkopo is a Kenya based pay-day loan provider operating fully online. It has been founded by DoZarplati. You will get 1% CashBack instantly from all investments you make in e-Mkopo until October 8.

In August, a new loan originator from the UK joined Grupeer. Cubefunder is a Windsor-based business loan provider helping small and medium-sized British businesses to grow.

In September, Grupeer has included the option to invest on projects without Buyback due to the possibility of placing such projects on the platform because in the future some loan originators might prefer not to offer BuyBack guarantee, instead, they would like to offer a higher interest rate. However, currently, all development projects and loan deals published on Grupeer platform are protected by BuyBack guarantee.

You can read Grupeer’s technical sheet here. When registering, if you use thisLINK I’ll receive a small commission.

Mintos

In September I started to invest in Mexican pesos (MXN). Not much to report yet, other than the absence of loans available most days. We will see how it affects profitability.

To clarify that I invest mainly manually, both in the primary and secondary markets. Partly because it seems to me that the AutoInvest tool doesn’t work too well… I don’t use Invest & Access either.

When presenting my results, Mintos is more complicated since I invest in six different currencies. The graph shows in red the combined results of the platform (converting each currency to EUR according to the exchange rate of each month). This means that monthly profitability is very susceptible to variations in exchange rates.

The maximum interest rate offered by loans in EUR have fallen dramatically during August and September. Compared to the 15-16% offered since April by about ten originators, now the best returns are 10-11%.

The interests offered by loans in Tenges (KAZ) and rubles (RUB) fluctuate a bit between 16 and 20%. They are usually always available both in the primary and secondary markets.

Loans in pounds sterling (GBP) and Georgian lari (GEL) are in short supply lately in both primary and secondary markets, but 2-3 times a month a few new ones appear, bringing the problem of Cash Drag to a minimum.

The best IRR (at the moment) are my investments in Kazakh tenges, Georgian laris and Russian rubles (17.0%-18.0%).

New originators in September:

• The Bulgarian loan originator Stikcredit launched on Mintos: Net annual returns of up to 12%; Buyback guarantee; Skin in the game of 10%; Loans listed in EUR ranging from EUR 100 to EUR 2 550; Loans issued in Bulgaria; and Mintos Rating of B-.
• Ukrainian loan originator E-cash: Mintos Rating of C+; Ukraine-issued short-term loans listed in EUR; Loans ranging from EUR 17 to EUR 400; Net annual returns of up to 11%; Buyback guarantee; Skin in the game of 10%; E-cash pays interest on delayed payments.
• Zenka Finance, one of the fastest growing digital lenders providers operating in Kenya. Zenka Finance in Mintos: Loans in EUR currency; Loans ranging between 12 and 182 euros, with a maturity of up to 61 days; Buyback guarantee; 10% skin in the game; Expected annual net return of up to 12%; Interest on late payments.
• ESTO from Estonia, a provider of point-of-sale (POS) purchase financing for merchants. ESTO from Estonia on Mintos: Average loan of EUR 600 with an average maturity of 10 months; ESTO only lends to near-prime and prime borrowers; Net annual returns of up to 10%; Buyback guarantee; Skin in the game of 10%.

New originators in August:

• In August, Polish money-loan product provider, Everest Finanse S.A. joined Mintos with personal loans. Everest Finanse has been operating since 2000 and issues its loans under the Bocian Pożyczki brand. Since its inception, the loan originator has issued more than 1.5 million loans worth around PLN 3.5 billion (around EUR 811.7 million). Other characteristics: 1) Mintos Rating of A-; Poland-issued personal loans listed in EUR; The average loan is EUR 550; Net annual returns of up to 7%; Buyback guarantee; Skin in the game of 5%; Payment of interest on delayed payments.
• SOS CREDIT consumer loans. Established in 2015, SOS CREDIT is lead by an international team with experience across the finance, payments and marketing industries. Main characteristics: Consumer loans issued from Ukraine; Average loan of EUR 93, with an average term of 22 days; You can expect up to 13% offered rate per annum; Buyback guarantee; Skin in the game of 15%.

In August, Mintos updated the information on 54 loan originators. The rest of loan originators are currently in the process of providing the requested information.

In June, Mintos launched a new product, Invest & Access, which makes investing and withdrawing your money quick and easy, but at lower rates that what you could get with AutoInvest or manual investment. For the moment though, I prefer to invest manually. The first overview of the Invest & Access performance has been made available in August. You can read it here.

And in September, Mintos has announced some updates to Invest&Access:

• Lending companies will become eligible for Invest & Access 1 month after joining Mintos.
• The maximum portfolio size will be increased to € 200,000.

NEO Finance

I’m not very satisfied with NEO Finance as anyone can deduce from the graph. After some really positive beginnings, the high number of defaulted loans has ended up causing negative returns in the last six months, and the XIRR since September is negative (-0.89%).

My investment strategy has been so far to invest only in loans from the primary market (except 4-5 in the secondary market) above 17% (and up to 27%) and without a provision fund. There are too many delayed loans (36%) that end unpaid (after 90 days) with only a small part being recovered (usually around 30-50% depending on the interest rate of the loan). The last weeks of June I stopped reinvesting the benefits. Starting in July, I’ve decided to try a new strategy using the provision fund (which is basically like paying for Buyback). The provision fund must be paid in advance when making the investment, which means starting with losses. It will take several months before I can evaluate the results of my new strategy, but for the moment it’s still not recovering.

In August, my loans with a provision fund increased to 17% (13% in August). When registering with this LINK, you will get 25 EUR when opening an account.

Peerberry

Without offering spectacular returns, Peerberry compensates it with an amazing regularity (return rates always between 11 and 12%), minimum follow-up needed and zero Cash DragI intend to keep my position as long as everything stays like this.

In September, for some reason I don’t fully understand, profitability has plummeted to 8.2%. I imagine that October will compensate with higher-than-average returns.

In August, Peerberry announced the launch of their loyalty program for investors:

• Silver: From 10 000 Eur of active investment portfolio (gets +0,5% for future investments)
• Gold: From 25 000 Eur of active investment portfolio (gets +0,75% for future investments)
• Platinum: From 40 000 Eur of active investment portfolio(gets +1% for future investments)

Also in August, Peerberry announced a new loan originator: Lithome, one of the largest and most reliable real estate companies in Lithuania.

Peerberry Peerberry in figures: In August, Peerberry reached a loan volume of 13.3 million and exceeded 13,100 investors from 64 countries that can invest in loans loans from 18 originators in 8 countries. Most loans last less than 40 days.

You can read Peerberry’s technical sheet here. When registering, if you use thisLINK I’ll receive a small commission.

Robocash

Return rates have increased since April with the payment of interest on longer-term loans (180-365 days), which are charged at the end, so the XIRR does not reflect the real performance of the platform (which should be 12.0% in my case).

Robocash continues with its excellent regularity after overcoming the problems of Cash Drag last summer. Since November, all loans are at 12%, compared with 14% previously. At the moment, my strategy is to maintain my current position.

In August, Robocash announced that two loan originators from Kazakhstan – Zaimer.kz and TezCredit – have stopped their activities on Robo.cash and will not be accepting new investments from now on. Yet, consumer loans from Kazakhstan will still be available on the platform but will be provided by Z-Finance only. Zaimer.kz was one of the first lenders of Robocash Group (since the very launch of the platform in February 2017). TezCredit integrated in July 2018, becaming the first loan originator offering to invest in instalment loans on the platform. Focused on ensuring business efficiency, Robocash Group has found TezCredit not to meet these expectations and decided to close the project in order to strengthen the development of short-term consumer loans in Kazakhstan. As for Zaimer.kz, despite leaving the platform, it will continue its activities within Robocash Group as a company providing customer acquisition and scoring services for Z-Finance. All the current loans issued by Zaimer.kz and TezCredit will be maintained until they are closed. All the invested funds including the earned interest will be paid back to investors in due course set by the existing assignment agreements.

In April, Robocash announced a Loyalty Programme for investors. Investors with ID>1,000 will receive increased interest for 3 months (from 1 September to 30 November 2019) given that they keep from 1,000 EUR on the platform from June 1, 2019 to August 31, 2019. The bonus will be accrued according to the investor’s category, which corresponds to the investor’s minimum balance as of June 1, 2019.

The first 1,000 investors who joined the platform (not my case) will receive a guaranteed bonus of 0.3% from 1 September 2019 to 31 January 2020 regardless of their balance.

You can read Robocash’ technical sheet here. When registering, if you use thisLINK I’ll receive a small commission.

Swaper

Swaper seems to have definitely solved the problems of Cash Drag. Return rates maintain an upward trend since the end of last year

New investors who sign up by using my Affiliate LINK will get a Swaper Loyalty Bonus (+2%) on all investments made during the first three months. This means that instead of a 12%, investors will earn 14%! The bonus will be activated after the first successful payment. If the account value drops under 5k after three months, the bonus will be revoked.

The promotion has been extended until 2 November.

In September, Swaper has added a blog and video with instructions on how to set up the AutoInvesthere). Apparently, it is no longer necessary to have ten active strategies as it was generally recommended when I first opened my account.

Swaper in figures as per the end of August: Total Cumulative Lending Volume = 79,839,596 €; Number of Active Investors = 2,420.

You can read Swaper’s technical sheet here.

Twino

I began to invest somewhat reluctantly in November 2018, in view of the negative comments about Cash Drag and low returns. Almost a year later, Twino has become one of my most profitable platforms (14.3%), thanks to the positive fluctuations of my investments in rubles.

After such a good year, I decided to increase my positions in October.

Twino announced the next version of of the Currency Exposure (CE) functionality, which lets you invest in loans that are pegged to the local currency of the specific loan originator. Starting from June, part of Russian loans will be listed with the Currency Exposure functionality and return of 14% p.a., while another part will be listed without it and return of 10% p.a. Meaning that it will not be possible to invest both with and without the CE functionality in one specific loan anymore. The loans that come with CE will be marked with a special icon near the interest rate.

Twino’s latest figures: 1) Loans financed in August: € 16,029,549; 2) Average interest on August loans: 10.41%; 3) Loans financed at all times: € 548,762,000; 4) XIRR to date: 10.65%; and 5) Number of investors (as of September 1): 18,473.

Viainvest

Viainvest is a platform with excellent regularity, no Cash Drag, that requires a minimum follow-up and return rates around 13% since January 2019.

Unlike other platforms, Viainvest withhold taxes. I present tax-free results to facilitate comparison.

In September, Vianvest announced that the platform is now also available in Spanish. They have also published the results of their annual survey (here). Finally, they have also announced an update of the platform and the user interface.

In August, Vianvet published an investor survey which is now closed and the brief summary of key findings of the survey is now available here.

You can read the Viainvest technical sheet here. When registering, if you use thisLINK I’ll receive a small commission.

Viventor

Viventor is a platform with excellent regularity, without Cash Drag, that requires a minimum follow-up and return rates around 13% since January 2019.

The problems with Aforti (Factor and Finance) loans announced in July seem to have been solved and the two companies are catching up with the payments. Thanks god, because they accounted for 17% of my investments in Viventor.

In August, Forza, from Bosnia has joined offering short term consumer loans. Founded in 2016, Forza has focused on steady, but stable growth. Since its inception, the company has issued and serviced more than 50.000 loans. Forza provides loans ranging from 50€ to 200 € with the term from 7 to 30 day. Up to date, Forza has disbursed more than 8 million euros to their clients.

And in July, the number of originators continues to increase until reaching 19 originators in 10 countries with the addition of Monify from Latvia. Since 2017, they have lent more than 12 million EUR loans and has helped 600+ customers to solve their working capital problems. Loans will be 5,000-100,000 EUR in size, 1 month-1 year duration, 12-16% annual return and a 60 day Buyback guarantee.

You can read Viventor’s technical sheet here. When registering, enter the code TN4687, invest at least € 500 for 30 days, and we will both receive 5 EUR

Other Fintech tools:

WhiskyInvestDirectis a very innovative platform that allows to invest in Scotch whiskey in the process of maturation. I started investing in March and I made two contributions with which I invested in thirteen different whiskeys. So far I’m quite happy with it, with a 6.5% XIRR.

Register with thisLINK and you will receive 1 liter of pure alcohol (1 LPA) and 2 pounds (GBP).

Evolution of my positions

As for the evolution of my positions since January 2018 depending on the type of investment, they’ve remained more or less constant until August, when I sold my most important investment fund for the purchase of an apartment.

And the evolution of my income from crowd investments (thanks to Eelis, the Wealthy Finn!) Compared with other bloggers (In head this month!):