Third version of P2P platform ratings is ready with 6 new platforms added - Viainvest, Peerberry, Viventor, Swaper, Lendermarket, Quanloop. Which one got rated as “B” and which one received the famous “WTF“? Let's find out.
Hi Kristaps, keep up good job with keeping people aware of p2p lending risks.
I have used Mintos, Bondora, EstateGuru and Crowdestate (not active with Crowdestate anymore) and i was surprised that you rate Bondora so much less than EstateGuru.
For me they are pretty much at same level and I think even some shareholders are same (not 100% sure about that).
Bondora Chairman of the Supervisory Board is also partner/advisor in EastateGuru (Joao Monteiro) according to home pages.
I like EstateGuru, but main issue for me is that Management member (Mihkel Roosme) has quite big (1.5M in Crowdestate, not sure about EstateGuru) projects in both sites (EstateGuru) and (Crowdestate),
which are not handled correctly (missing deadlines and rescheduled). Crowdestate CEO also labels these projects as fraud.
"All important documents available (user agreement, claim rights, pledges, guarantees, etc)?"
(Mintos) If i would ask you to get all documents regarding Varks would you really say that all important ones are available?
"Platform is advertising returns that cannot be achieved at all or only in specific/lucky cases"
-2 for Bondora seems harsh as most investors use Go&Grow and get excactly what advertised (at least so far).
"Creative accounting is used to hide or postpone bad debt?"
Why you rate Bondora with -2. I'm not aware about any major issues, but maybe i'm missing something.
Both Crowdestate and EstateGuru have rescheduled loans and changed contracts without access to originals anymore. Difficult to give examples but there are probably complaints visible in LHV forum https://fp.lhv.ee/forum/invest/132377 and https://fp.lhv.ee/forum/invest/132610 if you want to mess with estonian translation.
Thank you for comment! Had no idea about Mihkel Roosme and his projects in CE & EG. Will go through these details, try to verify and might update ratings.
Very valuable information Kristaps, I wish this I read this before becoming one of those gullible new investors who lost some small sum in one of the platforms you rated. I'm wondering if you could include the Iuvo, Bondster and October platforms next time. I'd also be interested in Fellow Finance.
Also, I'm very positive you include some information about your own positions and possible bias. You really encourage me to do research myself.
Hey Kristaps, I would like to suggest adding different weights to your qeustions. It's not really clear how "Regulation and Licenses" is worth the same as "Communication in Facebook groups". Maybe not all questions are worth the same ammount of points?
Twino has launched a product called ventures, this is they are now project developers themself. This reminds me of scams around such platforms. I also can not see reports comparable to those Bondora shows, so although the Bondora interface is not exactly user friendly, they are transparent, Twino not. I am currently inclined to withdraw from Twino and invest that on other platforms.
Even if Estate Guru is A grader, the upcoming period will cause a lot of unpaid loans in real estate p2p. Because it wont be possible to sell this year and wont be possible to refinance for principal+interest. With legal system of auctions, it will take so much time to retrieve money back. And who would continue to invest? So even if its perfect and legit, upcoming economy can make real estate a bad sector.
You really need to subtract if they are audited or not by a reputable auditor and maybe even bump it to 3.. this very important and I do not understand why it's not subtractable.
You also have to figure a way to score platforms based on how much loans are in high volatile currencies and high unemployment.
I also feel you need to breakdown transparency and add and subtract from it this is key in finance.
Any plans to update these ratings? I only just found them, and they would be a very valuable resours if kept current.
I am happy to see that the paltforms where I invested are rated highly except for PeerBerry. I first thought to pull out (if I invest in these things, I may as well invest in the best ones), but I think it would receive a higher rating now (there is a financial report on their website and it seems they were profitable last year, but I am not skilled at reading this stuff).
Yes, I plan to create a more serious website & ratings, and are working on that for last 6 months, but not ready yet :) Please subscribe to blog newsletter, and you will receive info when project is launched.
Estate Guru is Crowdfunding on the ‘Seeders’ crowdfunding platform in the UK. They have raised €439,701 so far which is overfunded as they were only looking for €349,950 giving 1.2% equity.
Hi Kristaps, keep up good job with keeping people aware of p2p lending risks.
I have used Mintos, Bondora, EstateGuru and Crowdestate (not active with Crowdestate anymore) and i was surprised that you rate Bondora so much less than EstateGuru.
For me they are pretty much at same level and I think even some shareholders are same (not 100% sure about that).
Bondora Chairman of the Supervisory Board is also partner/advisor in EastateGuru (Joao Monteiro) according to home pages.
I like EstateGuru, but main issue for me is that Management member (Mihkel Roosme) has quite big (1.5M in Crowdestate, not sure about EstateGuru) projects in both sites (EstateGuru) and (Crowdestate),
which are not handled correctly (missing deadlines and rescheduled). Crowdestate CEO also labels these projects as fraud.
https://www.aripaev.ee/borsiuudised/2019/10/10/crowdestatei-juht-kahtlustab-konkurendi-juhtfiguuri-pettuses
Few things i noticed without digging too much:
"Is platform regulated as a P2P investment platform by any government?"
I don't think that EstateGuru main body is regulated, only Lithuanian (daughter?) company.
On FAQ page EstateGuru declares that they are not regulated as there is no need.
You are giving points for being credit intermediary (Iuvo Group) but not for Creditor licence (Bondora) which is harder to obtain and more regulated?
"Can investors get all data to create their own reports about platform’s portfolio quality?"
and "Report about portfolio quality - detailed info about delays, defaults"
What data is missing in Bondora compared to ie Mintos? In my opinion no other platform offers so much information as Bondora.
If there are any ratings used, is there a report that shows expected return, based on ratings?
(Bondora) There is expected return chart https://www.bondora.com/en/public-statistics
"All important documents available (user agreement, claim rights, pledges, guarantees, etc)?"
(Mintos) If i would ask you to get all documents regarding Varks would you really say that all important ones are available?
"Platform is advertising returns that cannot be achieved at all or only in specific/lucky cases"
-2 for Bondora seems harsh as most investors use Go&Grow and get excactly what advertised (at least so far).
"Creative accounting is used to hide or postpone bad debt?"
Why you rate Bondora with -2. I'm not aware about any major issues, but maybe i'm missing something.
Both Crowdestate and EstateGuru have rescheduled loans and changed contracts without access to originals anymore. Difficult to give examples but there are probably complaints visible in LHV forum https://fp.lhv.ee/forum/invest/132377 and https://fp.lhv.ee/forum/invest/132610 if you want to mess with estonian translation.
Thank you for comment! Had no idea about Mihkel Roosme and his projects in CE & EG. Will go through these details, try to verify and might update ratings.
Very valuable information Kristaps, I wish this I read this before becoming one of those gullible new investors who lost some small sum in one of the platforms you rated. I'm wondering if you could include the Iuvo, Bondster and October platforms next time. I'd also be interested in Fellow Finance.
Also, I'm very positive you include some information about your own positions and possible bias. You really encourage me to do research myself.
Dear Kristaps, are you planning to have an update for May?
Hey Kristaps, I would like to suggest adding different weights to your qeustions. It's not really clear how "Regulation and Licenses" is worth the same as "Communication in Facebook groups". Maybe not all questions are worth the same ammount of points?
Dofinance? Funding Circle? Fellow finance? Anyway, if Twino is better than Bondora then something is wrong, i dare say.
Thank you for suggestions and feedback! Can you elaborate a bit more about Twino vs Bondora?
Twino has launched a product called ventures, this is they are now project developers themself. This reminds me of scams around such platforms. I also can not see reports comparable to those Bondora shows, so although the Bondora interface is not exactly user friendly, they are transparent, Twino not. I am currently inclined to withdraw from Twino and invest that on other platforms.
Even if Estate Guru is A grader, the upcoming period will cause a lot of unpaid loans in real estate p2p. Because it wont be possible to sell this year and wont be possible to refinance for principal+interest. With legal system of auctions, it will take so much time to retrieve money back. And who would continue to invest? So even if its perfect and legit, upcoming economy can make real estate a bad sector.
Appreciate your ratings, Kristaps. Would be great if you could add SoMo (formerly BridgeCrowd) Moncera, Capitalia, Nordstreet, Raizers.
Hello Mr. Mors!
There is a new platform called Afranga which lists the credits of it's own lending company.
https://afranga.com/
Can you include it in the ratings valuation and give some feedback?
Hi Kristaps, could you please rate EvoEstate? Thank you.
You really need to subtract if they are audited or not by a reputable auditor and maybe even bump it to 3.. this very important and I do not understand why it's not subtractable.
You also have to figure a way to score platforms based on how much loans are in high volatile currencies and high unemployment.
I also feel you need to breakdown transparency and add and subtract from it this is key in finance.
Any plans to update these ratings? I only just found them, and they would be a very valuable resours if kept current.
I am happy to see that the paltforms where I invested are rated highly except for PeerBerry. I first thought to pull out (if I invest in these things, I may as well invest in the best ones), but I think it would receive a higher rating now (there is a financial report on their website and it seems they were profitable last year, but I am not skilled at reading this stuff).
Yes, I plan to create a more serious website & ratings, and are working on that for last 6 months, but not ready yet :) Please subscribe to blog newsletter, and you will receive info when project is launched.
I do not like newsletters, but I already subscribed to your RSS feed.
Hi Kristaps, I do not know if you have already noticed that envestio is back! Perhaps it is worth an article. https://envestio.com
Please review robocash.
Would be nice to see review for Bulkestate, Lenndy and Moncera and Investly
Could you tell us more about EstateGuru regulation by government? I can't find that info
Estate Guru is Crowdfunding on the ‘Seeders’ crowdfunding platform in the UK. They have raised €439,701 so far which is overfunded as they were only looking for €349,950 giving 1.2% equity.