December has been a great month: 8.9% monthly (annualized) return compared to 8.1% last month, for a total of 342,279 Euro invested. Improved return rates also for all three types of platforms: P2B Crowdlending platforms (9.0% vs. 8.3%), P2P Crowdlending platforms (14.4% vs. 14.2%), and Real Estate Crowdfunding platforms (5.1% vs 3.9%). The trendline of my monthly return rates added last month confirms an upward trend since I started investing.

Table of Contents

Portfolio Summary

The main News of the month can be summarized as follows:

• Two additions to my portfolio: LenderMarket (P2P) and BitofProperty (real estate) reaching 40 platforms!;
• I’ve written a fact sheet for EVOEstate you can read here;
• I’m second place in both the passive income “race” of several bloggers and on the list of top-20 P2P Portfolios in terms of the invested amount (and first in terms of number of platforms). Besides, they’ve just included my blog in the list of Top 100 Peer-to-peer Lending Blogs (#49 position);
• I created a group on Facebook: Crowd Investors Forum in Spanish. There are several very active groups in English, but none in Spanish. Sign up if you think it’s helpful in sharing information, experiences, and doubts. In a couple of weeks, depending on the number of registered, we will see if it responds to a real demand or was just my imagination;
• This month’s disappointment is with no doubt Kuetzal. After numerous rumors about its lack of professionalism and transparency, the platform has just announced its liquidation (12 January). Also Privalore confirmed in December that they have decided not to continue their crowdfunding business;
• As for the positive surprise of the month, perhaps Twino, which thanks to the favourable conversion of ruble against Euro has achieved an annualized monthly return of 21.7%;
• I continue with my divestment on platforms that I’m not completely convinced about (Fellow Finance and Finbee), real estate in Spain (Housers and Privalore) and over-represented (Mintos). I have increased my positions mainly 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 CrowdEstate; 2) P2B: Wisefund and Envestio; and 3) P2P: Finbee, Grupeer and Twino.
• The best monthly returns were 1) real estate: CrowdEstate and Estateguru; 2) P2B: Kuetzal and Wisefund; and 3) P2P: Mintos, Twino and Viventor.
• 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.
5. In Italic platforms on which I have not been invested for too long, so they have not yet reached their full potential.

Delays and defaults

• In CrowdEstate the number of delayed projects is still 12 (24%). Really worrying. Several are different tiers of the same project (from before I stopped investing in multiple tiers).
• Flender stays with 8.2% of delays and 1.8% defaults.
• The situation in Estateguru remains more or less stable with 9.0% of delays and 3.0% of defaults. On a positive note, Estateguru is showing to be quite effective when it comes to recovering them one by one: 7 already recovered (2 this month)…
• The situation in Housers remains stable despite the stagnation of the real estate market in Spain.
• Linked Finance worsens slightly with 2.1% of delays and 2.2% of defaults.
• The delays and defaults of Finbee are within the expected, being a platform without Buyback. And Fellow Finance a disaster… Luckily I didn’t invest too much.
• 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.

Real Estate Crowdfunding:

Bit of Property

Bit of Propertyis a real estate investment platform where one can invest in properties from 50 Euro. The company is headquartered in Singapore and has a subsidiary in Estonia. Investing in properties is similar to buying stocks and shares in companies. The investor receives a share in the property and, as the beneficial owner, will receive rental income directly on his/her account (on a monthly basis). In addition, once the property is sold, investors will exit the property at market value along with any capital gains or losses. There is also a relatively active secondary market where you can quickly invest in all previous projects, but also selling them, thus providing some degree of liquidity.

I managed within a couple of days to get invested in the 3 projects currently available (one of them with two tiers). Right now at least, it’s relatively easy to buy at a discount (49 EUR instead of 50 EUR). I had some minor issues when opening the platform that were very quickly and efficiently resolved.

Brickowner

In Brickownersince 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 since I started investing.

In November, I invested in my sixth project: Great Hadden (2 years old). For transfers to accounts in the UK, I use Revolut.

In December, Brickowner announced that, over the course of 2019, the Great George Street, Eastbourne and Abbeygate investments were realized while the platform saw a 63% increase in users compared with the same time last year as well as a repeat investor rate of 64%. They also launched a new website.

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 the new platforms incorporated in August, Bricktarter is a Spanish platform that invests mostly in Andalusia, in properties for touristic rentals. Their projects are also often offered through EVOEstate.

In December I invested in a new project (already seven).

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 my strategy is to continue investing in each new project (unfortunately not that many).

As of today I have invested in 48 projects, 25 of them already completed.

You can read the technical sheet of Bulkestate here.

CrowdEstate

Until August, all projects were paid on time. all projects were being paid on time. However, from all payments being up to date, the performance dropped to 9 delayed projects in August, 8 in October … and 12 in November and December! Some are different tiers of the same project (from before I stopped investing in multiple tiers). Worrying, but we’ll have to wait to see how they evolve.

After the peak of October due to the finalization of several projects, the monthly return rate has returned to its usual values. A slight Cash Drag problem remains (15%).

The XIRR offered by CrowdEstate, taking into account only the returns of my projects already reimbursed (44), it is 13.9%.

My strategy is to continue investing in each new project, except for those financed in several stages (“Multiple investing rounds”), as I believe it goes against my principles of diversification.

In November, CrowdEstate announced its first project in Romania. The website is now also available in Romanian.

In November, CrowdEstate has incorporated some new features: Now, payments that have been late for 1-90 days appear in yellow, and 90+ days in red. Also, as of September 2019, CrowdEstate has selectively imposed temporary transaction restrictions on the secondary market to the investment opportunities.

As of October, CrowdEstate has 39,600 investors, 197 projects worth $ 80 million and an average return rate of 17.6%.

You can read the technical sheet of CrowdEstate here.

In December that, CrowdEstate, following Italian law, started withjolding income tax, which is 26%, except in the case of double taxation agreements, which is my case. However, I’m still trying to find out how to avoid this since the tax residency verification option is not yet available. If not easily fixed, I’ll stop investing in Italian options (thankfully not that many yet).

In November, CrowdEstate announced its first project in Romania. The website is now also available in Romanian.

In November, CrowdEstate has incorporated some new features: Now, payments that have been late for 1-90 days appear in yellow, and 90+ days in red. Also, as of September 2019, CrowdEstate has selectively imposed temporary transaction restrictions on the secondary market to the investment opportunities.

As of October, CrowdEstate has 39,600 investors, 197 projects worth $ 80 million and an average return rate of 17.6%.

You can read the technical sheet of CrowdEstate here.

Estateguru

In EstateGuru, after September’s record return rate (15.6%), almost twice the platform’s XIRR, return rates are back to their usual values (7.5%). The negative news was the defaults, which have reached 3.0%, from just 1.4% in September. On a positive note, Estateguru is proving very effective in getting them repaid one by one: they are already seven recovered (2 this month)…

Estateguru remains a tremendously active platform. I have already participated in 609 projects, of which 237 are already 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 in numbers (August 2019): 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 from 106 countries. You can access the report here.

You can read the technical sheet of EstateGuru here. When registering, you will receive 1% cashback of the amount invested during the first month and 0.5% the two following months with thisLINK.

EVOEstate

EVOEstate it’s still too recent to present too many results. I started investing in August. EVOEstate allows you to invest in projects from real estate companies across Europe, including many of the ones I already use: Brickstarter, Reinvest24, Inveslar, Bulkestate and Crowdestor. I plan to use it only to diversify into other platforms without having to open new accounts: Nordstreet, Bergfurst, Urbanitae, Norbalta or Re-Lender. There is a small section or category of projects with those in which EVOEstate has skin in the game, which are the ones they recommend. So far, the platform has offered projects in 10 countries (even in the USA), 6 to 60 months long and with annual returns between 6 and 16%.

In these first five months, I have already invested in 35 projects, which is 5.8 loans per month that offers excellent possibilities to diversify quickly. Due to the nature of real estate crowdfunding platforms, it will still take a few months before I start seeing some serious profit (just 1% XIRR as of today). Basically, my strategy is to invest variable amounts (between 100 and 150 EUR) in all projects except those from platforms on which I am already registered.

In January, I published my analysis (data sheet) of the platform, which you can read here.

In December, EVOEstate announced the addition of a new originator (Rendity – founded in 2015 and which has already financed over €25 Millions worth of loans with a primary target market in Austria) and its last three projects. Great news. About a month ago I was exploring the platform, but ended up dismissing it because of the high minimum investment (500 EUR). Through EVOEstate, the minimum has dropped to 50 EUR.

You can read my review/technical sheet of EvoEstate here. Register with thisLINK and you will receive 0.5% of the amount invested during the first six months.

Housers

The situation of Housers defaults and delays varies greatly depending on the type of project. Most fixed-rate projects with defaults have agreed on new payment schedules that include late interest and several have already resumed monthly payments. Instead, savings or investment projects that used to be paid even several months ahead of schedule are now suffering delays systematically – already 20! I attribute it to the cooling of the real estate market in Spain, especially in large cities such as Madrid, where Housers offers more over half of their projects.

My position in Housers is largely overrepresented (32% of all my investments crowd). So from August, I decided to change my strategy: reduce my investment to 100 EUR per project, and sell progressively fractions of some projects (mainly fixed rate) in the secondary market to progressively to reduce my position.

In January, the platform launchedHousers Corporate, a new business line dedicated to the financing of business projects. Its first project has been the completion of version 1.0 of the Housers App, as well as the development of version 2.0, and the financing of the advertising campaign and promotion of the application in its two versions.

In November, Housers launched its first green project: Sun Energy, a Fixed Rate opportunity that consists of the granting of a loan to a developer to finance the acquisition of 6 rights equivalent to 6 megawatts (Mw) for subsequent construction, operation and sale in Poland. This project will save 2,489 tons of petrol per year in CO2. It is a very interesting novelty, which fits perfectly with my intentions to invest more in ecological projects and / or sustainable development.

In May, Housers turned four years old. Housers finances projects in three countries (Spain, Italy, Portugal and Poland), 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 of the projects are 12 months or more in length, so the returns are mainly from rents. There are already 28 projects in which I have invested, 7 of them already completed. For a few months now, most of projects are also funded through EVOEstate.

Return rates are greatly fluctuating lately as shown in the graph (54% in October – outside the graph) once projects started to finalize.

On November 22, a collaboration agreement was signed between Inveslar Fintech and Invernova Trade. This union will finance real estate projects in the auction sector. Its main phases, from the initial analysis, through the bidding process, the judicial auction to the launch of the operation with its subsequent reform and commercialization, take place in a total average period of 14 months. Invernova Trade already drags three generations of professionals in this sector. Investing Fintech will remain true to its low-risk policy and will only invest in empty or unoccupied properties.

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.

Privalore

Privalore confirmed in December 2019 what was already an open secret: that after 4 years offering direct crowdfunding campaigns, they have decided not to continue the crowdfunding. The platform had been without new projects since February. Privalore will not launch new crowdfunding campaigns and will focus on managing ongoing investments as usual, sending the corresponding reports and updates until the return projects completed and profits can e returned. As before.

So I’m just waiting for my last three active investments to be completed (all delayed for over one year) and then, goodbye Privalore. A real shame, since Privalore represented the only option of direct real estate crowfunding, unlike the indirect one, which is when a Participatory Financing Platform (PFP) does the fundraising and then passes the funds to a real estate developer that will manage the project.

Privalore will continue to be fully active offering technology-based real estate services to individuals who need to sell or buy apartments to reform.

Reinvest24

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

It’s too early to judge (I started investing in May 2019). Overall satisfied. The projects are carefully selected, although I have only managed to invest in 5 projects, which are financed very slowly (2-3 months). To speed up the process, the latest projects are also being funded through EVOEstate. Some projects begin to generate profits from the moment of investment, before the project is fully financed. There is also no wide supply of new projects, although the platform has already financed 13 projects in its short history with estimated returns between 11 and 15% (6 of them completed). Another drawback is the 2% commission that is charged when investing, so at the moment I have negative returns (-3.8%).

Crowdlending P2B:

Crowdestor

In Crowdestor, after 9 months, I have already invested in 42 projects, with very variable returns between 10.0% and 20.7% and periods of 2 to 24 months. In general, they are financed fairly quickly, between a few hours and a week – the higher the profitability, the faster financing. At the moment payments are timely – neither delays nor non-payments. I’m very satisfied. In fact, I regret not starting to invest earlier. The only drawback perhaps is that their growing popularity causes projects to be financed in a few hours, which coupled with the lack of Autoinvest makes it easy for them to pass you off if you’re not very attentive. Luckily, many projects are financed in several stages, so there are often second opportunities to invest.

In November, my first project has finalized (a couple of months ahead of time).

Envestio

Envestio it is still the platform with the best return rate (16.9%! – not counting Wisefund, which is still very recent) and excellent punctuality in the payments. To bear in mind that many of the new opportunities are actually new tiers financing the same project (up to thirteen tiers), so by investing in them, we are not diversifying.

In recent months, the platform offers 2-3 new projects every month. With the returns offered and Buyback (!), my intention is to increase my positions.

In November, Envestio announced that from December 2, Eduard Ritsmann, with more than 20 years of experience in international sales and project leadership, will join the Envestio team as the new Chief Operating and Development Director.

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

Flender

Flender confirmed in October my first two defaults (2.0%), which caused for the first time negative monthly returns (-15%). I’ll have to wait (probably) quite a few months before knowing how they resolve. Flender has started legal activities to recover them (estimated at a 35% probability). In November, there were 7 delayed projects and 2 defaults (8.2 and 1.8%, respectively).

The monthly returns, October disaster aside, range from 7 to 10%, with some peaks for really generous specific promotions. The XIRR of Flender has also been affected: from being the second highest of all P2B platforms with 14.9%, only behind Envestio, it has dropped to 12.1%, which is still excellent.

In December, Flender announced that they won the Best Financial Services eCommerce Award at the 2019 eCommerce and Payment Awards at a ceremony held in Dublin in September.

Flender in numbers (December 2019): More than €12.5 million invested in 2019 for a historical total of €18m.

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 announced its liquidation in early January. The company will only process withdrawals of the funds and will no longer accept new project applications, investors registrations and deposits. Over the past month, there’s been numerous rumours on the poor management, lack of due-diligence process, dubious projects, etc. Due to high number of reports, claims and negative messages, SEB Bank and PAPAYA temporarily blocked Kuetzal’s bank accounts, meaning that Kuetzal is currently unable to perform any operations for undefined period.

Until then and since April 2019, I had invested in 18 projects, with returns between 14 and 21% and periods of 12 to 36 months (usually 12 and 24). All we have to do now is wait and see what happens after Kuetzal’s liquidation announcement, hoping for the best although likely it’s all lost.

Previously, in November, Kuetzal had informed investors in Marina Code SP company (loan no #0010) that they had found out negative information on the company’s current business activity, namely lack of communication and reporting, unprofessional approach, and bad expertise with current partners. Even though all the payments by the company were made on time, all the mentioned points forced Kuetzal to stop cooperation with Marina Code SP. Kuetzal took a decision to return invested funds from the company and return the invested funds to Kuetzal investors.

Also in November, Kuetzal announced a new CEO: Maksims Reutovs.

Linked Finance

The Irish platform is the most active by far of all P2B platforms I use. At least that’s how it was until August. Since the summer, the number of new projects has dropped dramatically: 7 in August, 15 in September and October, and 20 in November and December, progressively approaching the 26 a month averaged by the platform since I started using it. The returns are really regular, about 8%.

Linked Finance is one of my favorite platforms. 13 defaults (of 592 projects) and 11 delays. My intention is to continue investing in all new projects.

In November, Linked Finance announced new 5-year loans (7.95% to 17.5%). If interested, you’ll need to configure your AutoInvest features.

Figures in November: 120 million euros and 2,049 loans; 1.28% non-payment; 23,600 users; average loan size in the last 6 months: EUR 80,736. More here.

You can read the technical sheet of the platform here.

Monethera

Monethera was a new addition to my August portfolio. It is a platform similar to Envestio, Wisefund, TFG Crowd and Crowdestor in terms of operation and profitability. Its projects focus on four main areas: real estate, business growth, organic agriculture and green energy, logistics and technologies. They market projects with very attractive returns (18-21%) 3-12 months in duration. The platform will repurchase your projects with a 5% penalty.

I’ve have managed to invest in all but the first (14 in total). For now, projects are funded in a couple of weeks and payments are timely. My intention is to continue investing in each new project.

The AutoInvest option is planned for January-February 2020. Also in February 2020, Monethera will update the statistics in the “About Us” section so that the tracking record for 2019 will be available for users.

Register with thisLINK and you will receive a bonus of EUR 5 plus 0.5% of the amount invested during the 180 days (an improvement over the 90 days they offered up now).

October

The only problem of October to this day are the 8 projects in the process of judicial recovery (4.0% of the total), to which 2 others are joined in delay. Monthly returns continue to fluctuate greatly from month to month depending on when the delays and defaults are calculated, and the return remains only marginally positive (0.3% TIR), albeit in a frank recovery. As a point in favor, clarify that, unlike other platforms, October provisions 100% of the amount (since judicial recovery processes take a long time and the result is insecure). Provisions are potential losses and some or all of the amount due may be recovered over time. All other platforms do not consider such losses until the judicial recovery process is complete.

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 joined my portfolio in early September. It is a platform similar to Envestio, Kuetzal, Monethera, Wisefund and Crowdestor in terms of operation and profitability, but with different (and broader) geographical approach: UK, Switzerland, Germany and Austria. TFG has been involved in commercial financing since 2015, but the TFG Crowd platform is still very young: 2019. In this short period, they have already financed 31 projects with very attractive returns (8-19%, almost all with returns of 17%), 6-24 months, and very informative descriptions of the projects. Three are over. And they offer buyback guarantee!

I’ve already invested in 11 projects. Payments are punctual and I have already reached an excellent 15.3% IRR. I intend to continue investing in each new project.

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 7 projects in Guatemala, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Ghana 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 32.2 Tons of CO2 once the projects get operative!

Trine in figures (December): During 2019, Trine financed 17m Euro (more than in the entire history of Trine combined); 35 loans in 11 different countries were fully financed; 1.2 million people had access to clean electricity; More than half a million tonnes of CO2 less emissions over time; EUR 5.4 million was paid; 2 loans defaulted, resulting in a loss of €400,000 for investors; More than 2,500 new people became investors, resulting in more than 10,000 investors in total; Trine’s CEO received an honorary award from Swedish King Carl XVI Gustav himself.

If interested, you will receive a discount of EUR 10 on your first investment when registering through this LINK.

Wisefund

I started investing in Wisefund in August. It is a platform similar to Envestio, Kuetzal and Crowdestor in terms of performance and profitability. It started operating in 2019 in Estonia. They offer projects with very attractive returns (17.3-19.7%), some in more than one tier, 4-10 months in duration … and Buyback! The platform will repurchase its projects with a penalty.

I have already invested in 10 projects. The payments so far are punctual. Although it’s still soon to draw too many conclusions in such a short time, Wisefund has already become my platform with the best XIRR by far: 22.5% (i). My intention is to continue to invest in each new project.

In December, good news – my first project (HoReCa) has concluded prematurely as per the borrower’s initiative. Although, the full principal return was due on February 21, 2020, the Borrower has realized the project faster than expected.

In December, Wisefund fixed the problem they were having with deposits. In addition, they have announced a number of new features:

1. Loan details will show Project name instead of loan company, that were confusing users before
2. Account statement (any chosen date) download is available now, under ‘My account’
3. Fixed bug with payment schedule, now it will show the correct payment schedule when there is more than one investment in a loan.
4. Notifications and requests will now not only be sent in email but also will pop up in your Wisefund profile.
5. Now you can disable interest payment emails in your profile.

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

P2P Crowdlending:

Bondora

In October, I started investing in Bondora. It has taken me several years to decide it, but in the end I decided to try the most senior of P2P platforms. It is possibly one of the most controversial platforms, with vehement detractors and defenders. I understand that by investing time in analyzing the platform’s numbers, you can achieve really attractive returns, above 20%. For now, I’m going to focus on Go & Grow. I think it is a very attractive option to obtain a fixed return of 6.76% and absolute liquidity. My idea is to use Go & Grow for the part of my funds that I want to have quickly available for contingencies or investment opportunities.

At the moment, my profitability is 9.6% thanks still to the promotion when I opened my account.

In November, Bondora has launched a beta version of an app for Go & Grow. For the moment, the beta version of the app will only be the overview screen: the added, gained, total balance figures, and your progress tracker. But in the near future, Bondora will include the add and withdraw money functionality. In 2020, the app will contain all the functionality available on the desktop site and more.

When registering with this LINK you will get 5 EUR.

Bondster

In October, I started investing in Bondster, a P2P platform established in 2017 and based in Prague, Czech Republic. Bondster connects retail investors looking for alternative investments and microfinance institutions searching for flexible funding through an online marketplace. Bondster is the first marketplace of its kind in the Czech Republic that cooperates with microfinance institutions from all over the world. It has over 7,000 investors and 15 loan originators. The average annual return for investors has recently increased and amounted to 12,5 % on Euro short term investments and 8,5 % on Czech investments (most of them being secured by real estate). Bondster offers various diversification possibilities. You can invest into loans of different maturity, country of origin, type of loan, size and collateral. You can also benefit from a user-friendly AutoInvest tool with various filters and diversification settings. Majority of loans are offered with a buyback guarantee that will be activated in case the borrower is past-due with the scheduled repayment for 30 or 60 days (you will also earn interest during this period). Bondster is the first platform to introduce the so called Smart Reserve that is a great option for those who want to invest for a short period of time with a possibility to exit from the investment any time and for free without a necessity of selling loan in the secondary market.

In December, I’ve already reached an XIRR of 11.9%, and that despite the 150% increase in my position in November. In addition, I had the great fortune that on November 21, Bondster announced new Stikcredit loans with a juicy 14% right the day after my transfer of new funds. Bondster calculates that I will get a XIRR of around 13.6%.

Dofinance

In Dofinance, the maximum return rate offered is 11% for minimum six months. VIP Dofinance investors can get up to 12% (1% extra) during the first 90 days (10% VIP status) using my promotional LINK .

Dofinance may not be the platform with the highest return rates, but it represents the maximum of simplicity to operate. Once the objective return rate 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 October, they exceed 11% (11.1% XIRR).

Dofinance’s investors network has grown from 3473 to 4654 during 2019. In 2020, they are planning to launch new projects in Asia.

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 Invest

Fast Invest is one of my favorite platforms. The returns are maintained with great regularity, between 13 and 14%.

In November, Fast Invest announced that they are extending the loan originator list: The Danish company eCommerce 2020 will offer short-term EUR loans to private individuals in Iceland with up to 11% interest rate and secured by a 7-day BuyBack.

Fast Invest in numbers (December 2019): Average interest rate of 12.04% (and 64.8% of investors received over 12%); 39K users (from 29K at the end of 2018; Investment grew from 11.4 to 42.5 million EUR… and 100% of investors were in profit.

You can read Fast Invest’s technical sheet here.

Fellow Finance

Very disappointing result. Interest rates are really attractive (up to 55%!), but with no Buyback. My strategy was to invest only in loans with interest rates above 48% and always the minimal amount, which in the case of Fellow Finance is 25 euros. It is a complex platform and the customer service is not particularly good, so I still have many doubts about how the platform works precisely. At the end, too many defaults that don’t get balanced with the higher returns offered. In fact, I’ve ended up with really negative returns (-18.2% XIRR). 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.

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. I will still have to wait until early 2022 to completely empty my account.

You can read Fellow Finance’s technical sheet here.

Finbee

Although the yields obtained with FinBee are so far excellent (a XIRR of 15.7% 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 21.9% and 15.4% of my portfolio, respectively.

The recovery rates of defaulted loans are 56.15% 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 (up to 7-8%?), so since June 2019, I have stopped reinvesting profits and started withdrawing them from the platform.

You can read Finbee’s technical sheet here.

Grupeer

Grupeeris one of my favorite platforms, with return rates always between 13 and 15%.

In December, Grupeer announced that monthly investments have increased three-fold during the past year and the number of clients increased from almost 4,000 to over 22,000. The long-awaited secondary market and some additional products are still to be launched.

In December and mid-January, several of Grupeer’s originators have offered higher-profit campaigns (up to 14%). Also, CubeFunder offered 2,5% Cashback on all investments made till January 6th.

In November, Grupeer announced that ”Monify JSC” will terminate their Loan offering with immediate effect.

You can read Grupeer’s technical sheet here. When registering, if you use thisLINK, there is a 1% refund

LenderMarket

LenderMarket is an Irish company established in June 2019. They offer personal loans in EUR issued in Poland, Spain, Finland, Estonia, Denmark and the Czech Republic at 12% interest rate for up to 90 days and with a Buyback guarantee that kicks in when they’re 60 days overdue (plus accrued interest income and late payment fees). Repayments are done monthly. LenderMarket is a sister company of Creditstar Group AS, which was founded in 2006. Creditstar may sound familiar to many of you as it’s one of the originators at Mintos, with a B rating for Mintos and a score of 79/100 in Explore P2P – the third best of all Mintos originators. This was for me an excellent indicator of trust.

Based on the above credentials I started investing on 11 December, and did another deposit on the 17th for a total of 5000 EUR. Money got all quickly invested with the Autoinvest. Still too early to report on the returns, but the functioning so far has been really smooth, intuitive and simple, with zero follow-up needed, so I’m confident about the platform.

With thisLINK, you will receive a bonus of 1% of net deposited funds for the first 60 days. You will receive this amount 5 days after the 60-day period.

Mintos

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 it is more complicated because I invest in six different currencies: Euro, British Pound (GBP), Georgian Lari (GEL), Kazakh Tenge (KAZ), Russian Rubles (RUB) and Mexican Pesos (MXN). The graph shows in black the combined results of the platform (converting each currency to EUR according to the exchange rate for each month). Monthly returns are very susceptible to fluctuations in exchange rates.

The maximum returns offered by lending EUR fluctuate widely throughout the year, with originators quickly adjusting to what the competition offers. For example, from 15-16% offered since April by about ten originators, the maximum returns are now around 11.5-12%. One way to boost return rates is to be alert to specific offers by originators and continuously modify your investment strategy accordingly.

During December and until 10 January, Finko and Sun Finance offered a holiday cashback campaign consisting of a 0.5% cashback on all loans. Excellent opportunity to get an extra return by investing in loans with zero or just a couple of days left, thus allowing to reinvest the same funds multiple times within the prmotional period. I’ll report next month if it worked according to my expectations.

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 Georgian Lari (GEL) are in short supply lately both in the primary and secondary markets, but 2-3 times a month a few were offered, so the Cash Drag problem was not too bad. Unfortunately, in early January, there was a 90% early repurchase of my GEL loans. From Mintos they inform me that there will be no new GEL loans available in the market in the near future. In addition, it is no longer possible to deposit GEL

For sterling pounds (GBP), there are no new loans since September, so Cash Drag is already a big problem. I reached 10% in December, which I converted to EUR, but it is increasing again.

The best IRR (at the moment) are my investments in Kazakh tenges, Georgian laris and Russian rubles (17.1%-18.7%).

Originators

On 19 December, Mintos anounced that, while Aforti Finance continues to make regular payments to cover the accumulated negative settlement and ongoing borrower repayments and loan buybacks, these payments have decreased significantly. The incoming payments are first directed to cover the negative settlement due to investors – initially covered by Mintos, and then to cover pending borrowers’ repayments for investors. Luckily, I don’t have any loans with Aforti in Mintos (only in Viainvest). More here. here.

In November, Metrokredit, a loan originator that joined Mintos in July 2018, temporarily stopped issuance of new loans to borrowers. According to the statement of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation issued on 6 November 2019, Metrokredit has been excluded from the State Register of the Microfinance Organizations of the Russian Federation. As a result, Metrokredit’s Mintos Rating will be downgraded for now from B- to C, as the company has a limited competitive position and will not issue new loans. The new rating will be effective on the Mintos marketplace from 12 November 2019 until further notice. Mintos assured that Metrokredit will continue serving existing loans, and investors will continue receiving repayments and interest, but there was some panic and loans have been sold in the secondary market with up to 10% discount. I sold mine at 0.5% disccount. Better safe than sorry. In any case, looks like they’re being repaid punctually and Mintos issued a statement on 15 November that Metrokredit loans performing according to schedule (here).

And exactly one month after Metrokredit, on 6 December, the Central Bank of Kosovo revoked the licenses of IuteCredit and Monego. Mintos has suspended loans issued for both from the Primary and Secondary markets. Iutocredit has continued to pay the loans in a timely manner. Monego is a bit more problematic. A third party (Finitera) had stepped in to cover the payments to investors once borrowers’ repayments are delayed for 60 days (read more here). would review the existing decision on Monego licence suspension before taking the case to court for an appeal ( here). On 30 December, Mintos informed that the first transfer has been made to Mintos in the amount of EUR 293 985, and it is being directed to Mintos investors accounts. Also, Monego reportedly continues to discuss with the Central Bank of Kosovo and local authorities the review of the existing decision on Monego licence suspension before taking the case to court for an appeal. The work will continue after New Years’ holidays in Kosovo. In my case, the amount invested in Monego has very slowly decreased from 754 EUR when the issue started to 683 EUR on 10 January with a few loans over 60 days late.

In December, there has been a new agglutination of originators (as happened last month with Sun Finance). Money, Lendo, Metrokredit, Sebo, Varks and Ukrpozyka are now all together under Finko (more here). It can be problematic when programming AutoInvest (and even manual investment), since Finko includes originators with very different qualifications, from the C of Metrokredit to the B+ of Varks, in five countries (read more here).

Investments in loans issued by Ukrpozyka and Dinero – listed as Finko Ukraine on Mintos – have now a parent company guarantee. This is an additional risk mitigation factor: if a loan originating company cannot fulfil its contractual agreements towards an investor on Mintos, the parent company of that loan originator has to step in and meet the loan originating company’s obligations towards the investors.

In November, Sun Finance has taken the decision to unify all of its loan originators, previously listed separately on Mintos, under one group brand. As of November loan originator brands Bino, Kuki.pl, Simbo, Tengo, and Dineria will be unified under the Sun Finance Group brand, amounting to a total of around EUR 48 million in loans currently listed on the Mintos marketplace. The five loan originators will no longer be listed separately on Mintos with their previously known brand names. Please note that Auto Invest settings will be updated automatically – if the investor had set a strategy that involved, for example, Bino (Latvia) and Simbo (Denmark) loans, now the strategy will show Sun Finance and the respective countries where loans were issued (Latvia and Denmark).

New originators in December:

• Ukrpozyka (now part of Finko group) joined Mintos offering personal loans issued in Ukraine with net annual returns of up to 13%; Buyback guarantee; Skin in the game of 10%; Loans listed in €; Mintos Rating: B-;
• Creditter offers short-term loans issued in EUR and RUB with a buyback guarantee; Net annual returns of up to 10% in EUR and 17% in RUB; Skin in the game of 10%; Loans listed in EUR ranging from EUR 30 to EUR 400; Loans issued in Russia; and Mintos Rating of C+;
• Mikro Kapital expanded its presence by offeringinvestment opportunities in Romania: Net annual returns of up to 10%; Buyback guarantee; Skin in the game of 10%; Loans listed in € ranging from € 420 to € 147,000; Mintos Rating of B+;
• Dinero begins to pay interest on overdue loans.

New originators in November:

• Wowwo offers car Euro loans issued in Turkey with an expected net annual return of 10-11% with Buyback guarantee. Skin in the game of 10%; and a Mintos Rating of B-.
• Dinerito offers personal loans in EUR in Mexico of up to 11% and Buyback guarantee. Dinerito Audaz was established in 2011. The company grants loans to public sector officials through payroll discount payment mechanisms. It has a Mintos Rating of B- and a Skin in the game of 10%.
• Nexus offers loans to small and medium businesses in Russian with net annual returns of up to 15% (RUB loans) and 8% (EUR loans), Buyback guarantee, Skin in the game of 10% and a Mintos Rating of B.

Other news

In early December, Mintos introduced a new functionality – Pending Payments, with an aim to increase transparency over transfers of borrower repayments from the loan originators to investors on the Mintos marketplace. Mintos reports that the new functionality has some bugs and, as a result, many investors saw much higher than normal amounts of money in pending status in their account overview. It should be available and fully functional soon.

In November, Mintos became the only double award winner of the AltFi Awards 2019. Mintos was named the Alternative Finance Platform of The Year 2019 and received the People’s Choice Award for the fourth year in a row at the AltFi Awards 2019.

Mogo has issued corporate bonds, available on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The company will use part of the bond’s proceeds to refinance some of the loans funded through Mintos Marketplace. From 15 November 2019, over the following two weeks Mogo is considering to repurchase up to EUR 25 million of loans (both performing and non-performing).

Also in November, Mintos published the statistics for the period between 1 January 2019 and 31 October 2019 (here).

In November, I became a Mintos BETA tester. I will have the chance to see, test, and comment on the newest products through interactive usability tests.

Mintos figures (November 2019): 4.080 million Euro in investments (the largest market for investment in loans in Europe) have reached 219,600 investors, and has distributed 71.6 million in interest.

You can read Mintos’ technical sheet here. When registering, if you use thisLINK you’ll get 0.5% of the amount invested over the first three months.

NEO Finance

I’m not very satisfied with NEO Finance as anyone can deduct 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 in December is only marginally positive (0.1%).

My investment strategy has been so far to invest only in loans from the primary market 17% (and up to 27%) and no provision fund. Too many delayed loans that end up unpaid (after 90 days) and from which only a variable part is recovered that is usually around 30-50% depending on the return on the loan. The last few weeks of June I stopped reinvesting the profits. And since July, I’ve decided to try a new strategy using the provision fund (which is basically like paying for a buyback guarantee – Buyback). This provision fund must be paid in advance, when making the investment, which means starting with losses.

And since October, I have stopped using the repurchase option for unpaid loans after 90 days and rely on the recovery procedure of NEO Finance. According to its statistics, after 24 months, the lender will recover 53.6% and 73.8% after 33 months (statistics on slide 11 of the report). So, in theory, with some patience, it should work better than the 90-day buyback option. Looks like I won’t be able to let you know if it works better as a strategy until two years time.

In December, my loan with provision fund increased to 23% (20% in November). Return rates are clearly starting to recover.

By registering with thisLINK, you will receive 25 EUR when opening an account.

Peerberry

Without offering spectacular returns, Peerberry compensates it with an amazing regularity, minimum follow-up needed and zero Cash DragI intend to keep my position as long as everything stays like this.

In January, Aventus Group company Autofinance (BY) joined Peerberry offering leasing loans of up to 13 % annual return and buyback guarantee. Autofinance (BY) is a car leasing company launched in Belarus in June 2019. More at https://autofinance.by/.

Peerberry in figures: In December, Peerberry reached a loan volume of 17.3 million and surpassed the 17,500 investors in 64 countries, who can invest in loans 18 from originators in 8 countries.

You can read Peerberry’s technical sheet here.

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 in my case 11.5%).

Robocash had overcome its problems with Cash Drag last summer and maintained a relative regularity. However, October was a strange month. On the one hand, Cash Drag problems of up to 10% arose again. In addition, the payment of several of the long-term loans (bullet) caused a peak of profitability of up to 30%, the highest monthly return by far since I use Robocash. In November and December performance is back to its usual values. There’s still a slight Cash Drag of 2-3%.

In December, Robocash launched long-term commercial loans from Singapore. Loans will be issued for a period of up to 12 months, an annual return of up to 10% (11% until December 31, 2019), and buyback (more here).

In December, Robocash suspended investment into the loans of Robocash Finance Corp following a press release from the Securities and Exchange Commission in Philippines (SEC), where prevented Robocash Finance Corp.’s (Company) authority to operate as a financing company for running several branches without the necessary license. Although the placement of new loans from the Philippines has been stopped, Robocash still guarantees all commitments on the sold loans of Robocash Finance Corp. All the invested funds including the earned interest will be paid back to investors in due course set by the existing assignment agreements.

In November, Robocash reached the milestone of $ 500 million issued loans.

You can read Robocash’ technical sheet here.

Swaper

In Swaper, Cash Drag has popped-up again staying usually at around 10%, and even reaching 20% some days.

It’s been 3 years since launching of Swaper (October 2016). Swaper in figures (November): Cumulative volume of loans = 91,9 million; Number of active investors = 3,360.

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.

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 yields. One year later, Twino it has become one of my most profitable platforms (15.2%), thanks in part to the positive fluctuations of my investments in rubles.

In November, Twino announced that, after analyzing their BuyBack Guarantee, they will adjust it by changing the day of buyback from 31 days past due to 61 days. The decision was made based on the increase in debt collection efficiency after 31 days, as a result of improved internal debt collection processes. Twino will still pay interest to investors for each of the delay days. The new adjustments of the BuyBack Guarantee will take place starting from 13 November.

In November, Twino informed of the establishment of a Group Council, as well as changes in Board of Directors. The Council is the highest decision-making body in Twino Group and has the ultimate responsibility for setting company’s strategy, business objectives and risk management framework.

Also in November, Twino published its Consolidated Financial Statement for year 2018 (here). The audited financial results for 2018 show Group’s consolidated net profit nearing €9 million, the best in history: Revenue: €90.5 million; Equity: €15.5 million; Cash and cash equivalents: €8.1 million; Strong liquidity ratio of 1.26; Operational cash-flow positive, which indicates that Twino is generating positive cash-flow to maintain and grow its operations.

Twino in figures (November): 1) Loans financed in the last month: s 16,729.; 2) Average interest: 10.53%; 3) 600 million total financed; 4) XIRR to date: 10.58%; and 5) 19,310 investors.

Viainvest

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

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

Vianinvest in figures (December 2019): 179 million funded and 14,019 registered investors.

You can read the Viainvest technical sheet here.

Viventor

Viventor is a platform with excellent regularity, no Cash Drag, that requires a minimum follow-up and return rates in a clear rising trend since January 2019 (16.2% in December!) despite Aforti’s issue.

The situation of Aforti loans is slowly improving. My investments in Aforti Finance account for 8.2% of my investments in Viventor (compared to 11.7% in November). The problems started in summer. On August 12th, ViVentor negotiated and signed Settlement Agreements, which contain a daily payment schedule designed to ease up the cash flows of the companies and make it easier for them to repay their outstanding debt at that time. Both agreements expired on 13 September. By then, Aforti Factor S.A has managed to pay all of their outstanding debt and Aforti Finance S.A. settled their debt on 5 November. However, new debt has been growing for both companies ever since Viventor is planning once again to meet with the management of Aforti Finance S.A. and Aforti Factor S.A. to continue to work out the details and find solutions to resume transferring borrower repayments to us for distribution among investors.

In November, Viventor has added a new originator in Bosnia: Kreddy.ba. They will offer consumer loans with maturities from 3 to 12 months, loan amounts of 300 to 1000 euros. The company will maintain 5% skin in the game and start by offering an introductory projected return of around 12% p.a. For the company’s 2019 financial year, DFI Bosnia (the parent company), reported a revenue of EUR 2 million, which represents an increase of more than 50% year-on-year. DFI Bosnia is also a part of Finstar Financial group – an international private equity firm operating in Europe, the US, Asia, Latin America and the CIS. The Group has 20 years of operational experience launching new projects in developing markets, restructuring existing companies to become more competitive, as well as sealing M&A deals and building greenfield start-ups.

In November, Viventor explained in a forum that the reason there appears to be a high percentage of non-default loans is because there are currently no means of identifying loans that are going on, although Viventor is working to fix it.

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

Other Fintech tools:

Whiskey Invest Direct

WhiskyInvestDirect, a very novel platform that allows investment in Scotch whisky in the process of maturation. I started investing in March and have made two deposits that allowed me to invest in thirteen different whiskeys. For transfers to UK platforms I use Revolut. At the moment I am quite satisfied, with a XIRR of 6.2%.

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

Indexa

Still really satisfied with Indexa. My portfolio is at the fifth level of risk (of 10) and 2019 has been a great year.

In December, Indexa turned 4 years old. The volume managed has multiplied by 2.3 this year, from 135 million EUR (12/15/2018) to over 312 m (12/15/2019), and more than 13,600 customers. In addition, Indexa has its own Skin in the game: between partners and Indexa team they have invested over 13 million Euro, 4% of the total money managed. More here, although only available in Spanish.

Indexa is the first profitable automated manager in Europe (and perhaps the world) and will lower the management fee from 0.45% to 0.43% for fund accounts from 10 to 100 thousand Euro from January. In addition, Vanguard, the manager of most of the funds included in Indexa’s portfolios, has again lowered its fund commissions. The average cost of funds in The Index portfolios low -0.04% (from 0.19% on average to 0.15%), which equates to 85 k Euro of annual savings for Indexa customers.

€ 10,000 free of management fees for 1 year when you invest more than € 1,000 to the fund portfolio or more than € 50 to the pension plan or EPSV account when registering with thisLINK.

Online banking

Besides, I use N26 and Revolut for my bank transfers. These two online banks do not charge fees for transfers, charge minimum fees for payments in foreign currency, and allow you to open an account within minutes.

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 to other bloggers (second this month!):