Haven’t you wondered what the largest and best p2p loans platforms in Europe are? I have compiled them according to my experience and you can benefit from my preselection. As an investor on all platforms I hope that I can give you good advice.
Many providers offer you a bonus! To take advatage of this, you simply have to follow the link after the respective section.
Preface
To begin with, I would like to briefly explain to you what p2p loans or peer-to-peer lending is all about. In simple terms, one private individual lends money to another and receives interest in return. The platforms act as intermediaries and take care of the accounting and cash flow. For more info I would like to ask you to read my article on the subject.
You now easily have the opportunity to lend money to someone on the other side of the world and receive interest on it. The p2p loan platforms make this possible. But what should you look out for when investing money?
- At first, I introduce you to the biggest and best p2p loans, a preselection intended to make your choices easier.
- Next, you should be aware that high returns always come with high risk. Most platform in the comparison show them the risk of individual p2p loans using a scale. This makes it easier for you to make a decision.
- Divide your investment into several credits per page. I always try to have at least 500 credits per platform.
The best p2p loans platforms in Europe
Here I would like to introduce you to the largest peer-to-peer platforms in Europe. These are active in different countries and thus cover a broad spectrum in Europe and all over the world. You as an investor have the options to choose what suits you best. Depending on how risk-averse or fearful you are, there are different providers.
Since I see this type of investment as very promising, I have invested money on all platforms. In order to make the most of the compound interest effect, a high yield is crucial for me and therefore I invest in p2p loans. There is hardly any form of investment that promises similar interest rates. But it is up to you how you want to invest your money. The most important thing is that you invest and do not leave your money in the savings account.
I have selected and filtered the platforms so that it is also possible for you to invest your money there. Moreover, these are also the best and biggest p2p loans platforms. Many marketplaces are only available in the respective country, such as funding circle or Zopa. You can only invest there if you live in the UK and have a bank account there.
The following platforms are sorted by size and this is not to be understood as a valuation.
Mintos
Mintos was founded in 2015 and has since then become the largest marketplace of its kind. Unlike the other platforms, Mintos does not issue the loans itself. Instead, Mintos works with over 60 partners worldwide.
Mintos does not evaluate the creditworthiness of individual creditors, but partners through a scale. In over 30 countries, you can divide and diversify your investments. In addition, there is a very good rating system and a buyback guarantee.
As of October 2020, Mintos has funded 5.6 billion Euro in loans, paying out 118€ million in interest. The more than 300,000 investors come from over 60 countries. On average, Mintos paid out 12.35% interest over the past few years. If you want to learn more, I recommend you read the article on Mintos, how you can earn 12% interest yourself.
Advantages
- Invest from 10 euros in the primary market
- Invest from 1 euro in the secondary market
- High yield with up to 12.35%.
- Over 30 countries
- Buy-back guarantee
- Investment period 1 – 72 months
- Rating system for lenders
- Auto Invest available
- Secondary market available from 1 Euro
- 3 ready-made strategies to invest
Disadvantages
- Custom investing not quite intuitive
- Lender default happens
If you want to invest in p2p loans, then you can’t avoid Mintos. They are the largest platform in the world that works with lenders as an intermediary. Moreover, the platform has proven itself very well over the last few years and has consistently paid out interest.
Twino
Twino was founded in Latvia in 2009 and started lending in Latvia, Poland, Russia and Georgia. Then, in 2015, the platform was launched and they started lending in Denmark, Kazakhstan and Spain as well.
Twino has over 400 employees working in 6 locations. At the moment, you can invest in 5 countries and get an interest rate of 10%. The loans have either a buy-back or payment guarantee.
Until October 2020, 716 million euros had been invested, by more than 22,000 people. In the process, 11.7 million euros were paid out in interest. The investment term ranges from 1 to 60 months. However, most p2p loans have a duration of one month and are therefore relatively short.
Advantages
- Investieren ab 10€
- Kredite in 5 Ländern
- Zinsen zwischen 8 – 10%
- Anlagedauer 1 – 60 Monate
- Viele Kredite mit 1 Monat Laufzeit
- Auto Invest vorhanden
- Buy-Back- und Zahlungsgarantie
- Sehr einfach zu bedienen
Disadvantages
- Kredite weisen keine Risikoklasse aus
- Kein Bewertungssystem
As you can see, there are not so many disadvantages from my side. I am pretty sure that the platform Twino is doing a lot of things right. I am convinced that it is a good platform.
Fellow Finance
Fellow Finance is a Finnish company founded in 2013 and operating since 2014. Thanks to their strong growth, they are now the largest platform in Northern Europe.
As an investor, you can invest your money in a wide range of consumer loans in Finland, Poland, Germany, Denmark, Czech Republic and Sweden. In addition, there is the possibility to invest in Finnish corporate loans.
Until October 2020, loans worth 660 million euros had been granted. There are currently 17,000 people investing their money on the platform and they have earned returns of between 6 – 9%. Loans have already been granted to almost 900,000 people.
Advantages
- Invest from 25€ per loan
- Loans in 6 countries
- Average interest rates between 6 – 9%
- Investment period 1 – 120 months
- Auto Invest available
- Secondary market available
- Rating system of the loans
Disadvantages
- No buy-back or payment guarantee.
- Auto Invest complicated
- High default rate of loans
In recent years, the development has been very positive and the platform wants to grow further. More countries are to be added in the future.
Exporo
Exporo was founded in Hamburg in 2014. Since then, the company has been growing steadily and now has over 200 employees in Europe. It has its headquarters in Hamburg’s Hafencity.
Exporo is Germany’s leading platform in the field of p2p loans for real estate. Here you can invest your money in existing real estate – like an owner. In addition, you can participate in projects for the construction of new residential buildings or for the renovation of commercial properties.
As of September 2020, Exporo has realized 342 projects, mediating 649 million Euros. Supported by almost 30,000 investors, an average effective interest rate of 5.78% was generated. Of these, around 30 properties are portfolio properties and these generated a return of 4.3%. 251 projects were funded and another 66 projects are private placements.
Advantages
- Projects in Germany, Austria, France and the Netherlands
- Earn Miles with Miles & More
- Trading place for existing properties
- Investment period 1 to 10 years
- New: invest from 1€
- Personal advisor by phone
Disadvantages
- Not such a large selection of projects
- Many investments only possible from 500€
- No automatic investment
- Site only in German
Through the merger with Zinsland in 2019 Exporo became – by far – the largest platform in Germany. Since both companies were based in Hamburg, the merger was relatively easy. Now they are the largest p2p real estate platform in Europe. They are growing steadily and are now also active in Germany’s neighboring countries.
Bondora
In 2008 Bondora was founded in Estonia. Their consumer credit marketplace is already active in 3 countries and more are to follow. The countries are Estonia, Spain and Finland.
Bondora has a good rating system and very transparent statistics. They are the only platform to offer Go & Grow, an investment where you can withdraw your money relatively quickly, and with 6.75% interest rate.
By October 2020, loans totaling 380 million euros had been granted and 48 million euros in interest had been paid out. There are over 130,000 people who invest their money there and earn an average of 9.5% interest. At Go & Grow, it is 6.75%.
Advantages
- Investment from 1 Euro
- Good rating system
- Investment possible in 3 countries
- High return with average 9,5%
- Auto invest adjustable
- Secondary market available
- Go & Grow with 6.75% interest
- High diversification possible
Disadvantages
- No buy-back or payment guarantee
- Portfolio Pro & Portfolio Manager not available at the moment
- Only limited deposit on Go & Grow per month
The platform has proven itself over 12 years and with Go & Grow they have created a unique selling point. The site is very transparent and Bondora performed well during the Corona crisis.
PeerBerry
The company PeerBerry from Latvia launched its p2p loans platform in 2017. PeerBerry also works with more than 20 lenders and extends its loans in 8 countries. 70% of these are short-term loans. But there are also long-term, car, business and real estate loans.
PeerBerry has never had loans more than 60 days past due. There have never been any defaulted loans in PeerBerry history. PeerBerry is growing rapidly and new partners are joining all the time.
PeerBerry has made p2p loans of over 300 million Euro through October 2020. More than 3.5 million Euro in interest has already been paid to the 26,000 investors. This generated an average return of 11.16%.
Advantages
- Investment from 10 Euro
- Yield on average 11,16
- Auto Invest available
- No loans defaulted so far
- Investment possible in 8 countries
- Repurchase guarantee available
- High diversification through 23 lenders
- Investment period up to 24 months
Disadvantages
- No rating system
- No secondary market
PeerBerry is still relatively young in the p2p loans market. Nevertheless, they have developed enormously and are well on the way to competing with the big players. After mostly short-term loans are granted, you also quickly get your money back.
EstateGuru
EstateGuru was founded in 2014 in Tallinn, Estonia. Their marketplace for short-term, real estate secured loans is already active in 7 countries and more are to follow. This gives investors the opportunity to diversify their investments and minimize risk. The countries Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania make up the main part of the projects. However, there are also projects in Finland, Germany, Portugal and Spain.
Since its founding, EstateGuru has already extended 237 million euros in loans as of Sept. 15, 2020. In the same period, almost EUR 18 million was paid out to investors. A total of 1,724 loans were financed at a historical yield of 11.69%. There are nearly 60,000 investors from over 100 countries.
Advantages
- High yield 11.69%
- 7 countries
- No loan default so far
- Investment period 12 – 60 months
- Auto Invest available
- Secondary market to sell
- Mortgages as collateral
Disadvantages
- Investment from 50 Euro
- Auto Invest – better setting from 250 Euros per investment
EstateGuru has big plans. They are aiming for an IPO in the next 5 to 10 years. To do this, they are raising money to continue to grow. This is the only way they can survive in a competitive market environment. The Baltic countries are at the forefront of p2p loans in Europe. It is hardly surprising that EstateGuru is in 2nd place among real estate peer-to-peer platforms.
ViaInvest
ViaInvest from Riga, Latvia, has been providing peer-to-peer loans since 2009. The platform was officially launched in 2016. Since then, they have been operating in seven countries and are one of the leading small lenders across Europe. The countries are Sweden, Latvia, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Spain and Vietnam.
It is easy to create a diversified portfolio of consumer and corporate loans with a fixed interest rate of 12% annually.
The peer-to-peer platform has issued p2p loans of over 220 million Euros (as of October 2020). In the process, over 4 million Euros in interest have already been paid to the 18,000 investors. On average, each investor has invested 3,300 Euros on the platform.
Advantages
- Investment from 10 Euro
- High yield with 12%
- 7 countries
- Many short term loans
- Repurchase guarantee
- Auto Invest available
- 5% of the loan amount comes from ViaInvest
Disadvantages
- No rating system
- No secondary market
With their 11 years in p2p loans, they are very long time in this business. Additionally the development is quite remarkable despite the Corona crisis. They consistently pay 12% interest, which puts them right at the top.
Explanation of terms
A rating system can look like this. For example, the platform labels a loan with the letters A through F, where A is a relatively safe loan and F would be the highest risk category. Often there is also a color scale from green to red.
The primary or initial market is the normal trading place where you can usually trade all new loans.
On a secondary market, you can sell your loans and get your money faster, if necessary. Instead of having to wait until the loans have expired so that you can pay out your money.
If the platform offers an Auto Invest, it means that your money is invested quite automatically. You can make your settings and then you practically don’t have to worry about anything.
Investment period means the duration of a loan. However, borrowers can often suspend payment or extend the term. Please note.
The buy-back or payment guarantee are special securities of the individual platforms. If the creditor stops paying for any reason, then the platform or lender steps in and repays the loan.
Some platforms do not have direct customer contact. Instead, they manage the lenders or lending partners, who are then the intermediaries of the p2p loans to the creditors.
Summary
If you ask me, this alternative form of investment offers a lot of possibilities. You can choose from many platforms and then additionally spread your risk by broadly diversifying your investment. With a return of over 10%, they also usually beat the stock market. However, you do not have fluctuations in prices, but receive your interest consistently.
Another advantage is that you can also build up a passive income with the interest. Let’s assume you are invested with 50,000 Euros on several platforms and you receive 9% interest on average. Thus, you get 4,500 Euros per year or 375 Euros per month. That’s quite remarkable, isn’t it?
Of course, you can also leave the money on the marketplaces and benefit from the compound interest effect. This one has a huge impact on your net worth.
I hope you enjoyed the article and look forward for your feedback!
Attention – p2p loans have a high risk!
Please expect that loans will not be repaid and you may lose your investment. Even any guarantees cannot fully protect you if the borrower or platform is insolvent.
GELVOS was created with the idea of how to implement “earn money without stress” and for this I would like to give you our experience again. All articles on this page are divided into these sections: make. save. invest. live. If you don’t want to miss anything, subscribe to our free newsletter and get a big step closer to your goals!
This article is not an investment advice, it is only our personal opinion. We report here only on our personal experiences and findings as private investors. Thus, my texts serve solely to impart knowledge and do not constitute an invitation to buy or sell investment products. For further information please refer to the disclaimer.