Bondora is one of the oldest peer-to-peer lending platforms, and I joined early on in my P2P lending journey, around 2016.

While this platform has been criticized by investors in the past, my portfolio has been chugging along quite well over the years, and my only complaint would be about the graphics and UI of the platform, which I find really ugly.

In this Bondora review, I’ll be sharing my results on this Estonian platform, since many of you have been asking me if you should invest in this platform and if so, how to do it.

You probably know this platform by the very distinctive cartoon characters they employ on the website. I find them a bit old-fashioned, but there’s no question that it gives Bondora a very distinctive and memorable branding.

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Launched in 2017, PeerBerry has been gaining quite a lot of popularity among peer-to-peer platforms recently. As with many crowdlending platforms, PeerBerry originated in the Baltics – specifically Riga, Latvia.

At the time of this review, the platform has an average annual investment return of 11.51%, a solid return for most platforms. With more than 18,000 investors and over €212 million in funded loans, PeerBerry is certainly making some waves in the peer-to-peer business.

Let’s delve deeper into how PeerBerry operates, its transparency, risks, and returns.

⚙️ How does PeerBerry work?

PeerBerry works in a similar way to Mintos, in that, it is a loan aggregator. The platform started out in 2017 with loans originated solely by Aventus Group – a group of digital loan originators with short-term, long-term, and leasing loans across Europe and Asia.

Ever since, PeerBerry has continuously expanded its loan originators network to include others such as Gofingo (another group of loan originators) and their subsidiaries.

In 2019, GofinGo Group saw an increase in issued loans (2.4 times more than 2018) and had a net interest income of €11.06 million. This translated into a total loan portfolio of €6.6 million at the end of 2019, with equity standing at €4.1 million. This is 3 times higher than all the liabilities to investors who invested in Gofingo Group loans through PeerBerry.

This increase in loan originators allows for a diverse portfolio. PeerBerry claims to offer a wide variety of loans – short, long, real estate, leasing, and business loans – although, the available investment opportunities at the time of this review were mostly short term, with most maturing at one month. This means that most of the loan originators are operating with payday-style loans.

The platform offers loans from:

• Lithuania
• Poland
• Belarus
• Czech Republic
• Kazakhstan
• the Republic of Moldova
• Russian, and
• Ukraine

It is important to note that all of PeerBerry’s loan originators offer a BuyBack guarantee, meaning that the loan originator is obligated to buy back the claim, should the payment be delayed by more than 60 days.

There are currently 12 loan originators in total, and they all publish their financial statement, the majority of which have been audited for extra peace of mind.

✍🏻 Registration

Now let’s take a look at the online interface.

The website is clean, straightforward, easy to use, and comes in three languages:

• English
• German
• Spanish

Registration should take you no longer than a couple of minutes, you just need to fill in a few details and you’re in. Although there is no tedious identification process upfront, the platform requires it eventually, when you decide to withdraw your funds.

You will be asked to scan and upload your identification document (passport or ID card) as part of the platform’s anti-money laundering and terrorism process. Once this is done, you will then have to make a transfer to the bank account from which the deposit was made. Withdrawals can only be done in Euro.

This is the first time I’ve ever come across this sort of set-up. All other P2P platforms require you to verify your identity at the get-go, thus ensuring that the funds used to power their investments are coming from lawful sources.

It is certainly odd that you are only required to verify your identity at the withdrawal stage. As an investor, I want to make sure that I will be able to transfer my funds without any identity issues at a later stage.

Upon contacting the platform, PeerBerry has announced that it is currently working on implementing new identification and KYC processes.

PeerBerry makes it possible for both private individuals and companies to open accounts. Keep in mind that any investor should be at least 18 years old, with a bank account registered in the European Union.

The next step is to transfer your funds, which can be as little as €10, to PeerBerry’s bank account in order to start investing.

The platform accepts transfers in Euro only using SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) transfers. This provides further protection for European investors against currency swings.

Processing may take up to 2 working days. PeerBerry then sends you a confirmation e-mail stating that your deposited funds were added to your Investor Account and you are now able to start making investments.

👥 What can I invest in?

PeerBerry offers mostly short-term loans on the consumer marketplace. The platform presents you with an overview of each loan, including the loan originator, amount, interest rate, remaining principal and days remaining for investing in the loan.

Borrower details are also available. These include the borrower’s country, city, age, gender and number of loans taken.

Since most of the loans available mature in around 30 days, they are often considered to be Full Bullet loans. This means that the investor would receive the principal and interest at one go, through one payment, at the end of the investment period, as illustrated in the schedule in the screenshot below.

On the other hand, the platform’s long term loans are paid back every month through an Annuity Type Schedule, where the principal and interest are paid back periodically over the investment period. PeerBerry offers a breakdown of the returns for each investment available.

Auto Invest

The platform allows investors to make use of their Auto Invest feature which uses the returns in your account to automatically invest in active loans, based on your preferences.

You can activate, pause, or cancel this feature at any time. Simply set up your preferred criteria for investing and you are good to go.

The possible setting options are listed below:

• The total amount of funds you wish to reinvest using the Auto Invest strategy.
• The maximum amount of investment in one loan.
• The annual interest rate.
• The remaining loan term.
• The remaining principal amount.
• The minimum amount of funds you wish to retain in your account.
• The loan status (Current or late).
• The country of issue.
• The loan originator.
• BuyBack guarantee.

Interestingly, even though PeerBerry states that all its investments come with BuyBack guarantee, their Auto Invest asks whether you prefer a BuyBack guarantee or not. This seems to suggest that the platform has plans to include investments without BuyBack in the future.

Auto Invest is great for those of you who do not wish to spend time keeping up with all the available investment opportunities on the website, while still achieving a diverse portfolio.

🕵️ Transparency

The About page, shows a team of four, including Arunas Lekavicius, the platform’s CEO, who has been working in the financial industry since 2007.

The profiles are accompanied by working LinkedIn profiles, however, no further information is found on the platform’s website. It is strange that the rest of the team is not shown here, especially with respect to the CTO, Marketing Managers, and Lawyer.

On reaching out to the platform, PeerBerry has clarified that the team is made up of a total of 9 employees:

• Arūnas Lekavičius, CEO PeerBerry
• Viktar Kamiahin, CTO
• Inga Zubanovė, COO
• Rūta Zenkevičienė, Head of Customer Care
• Rita Simanavičiūtė, Head of Marketing and Communications
• Karolina Staugaitė, Digital Marketing Manager
• Rasa Paškevičiūtė, Customer Care Manager
• Milda Martišiutė, Customer Care Manager, and
• Tadas Bulota, Lawyer

The team was quick to answer any of my queries in detail and in record time, which reflects positively on the entire company. The website has an online chat function for any customer queries. Should you have a number of questions, you will most likely be instructed to send an email to [email protected].

🌟 Loyalty Program

PeerBerry offers a loyalty program to investors who have been members for more than 90 days. The program is based on the amount of money you have invested and comes in 3 levels:

• Silver: for an active investment portfolio above €10,000 you will get 0.5% on future investments.
• Gold: for an active investment portfolio above €25,000 you will get 0.75% on future investments.
• Platinum: for an active investment portfolio above €40,000 you will get 1% on future investments.

This means that if you are a member of the Silver Program, for instance, and invest in a loan that provides an 11% return, you will automatically be upped to 11.5%.

💡 Potential Risks

One of the main risks with any peer-to-peer platform is Loan Originator default. PeerBerry offers an additional guarantee, further to the BuyBack guarantee mentioned above, specifically for such potential cases.

The platform stated that their main partner, Aventus Group, has signed an additional guarantee agreement. This means that in case of loan originator default, Aventus Group and Gofingo will “do everything … to protect your investments, maintain transparency and good reputation of all partners – loan originators”, as A. Lekavičius explains on their blog.

80% of total loans on the platform are accounted for by Aventus Group, with Gofingo following at 15% and Lithome at 5%.

It is important to note that in 2019, Aventus Group posted a net profit of €12.6 million, whereas their equity stood at €14.3 million. These figures suggest that the company would be able to cover any liabilities, should they come up. A comprehensive article with Aventus Group CFO comments can be found here.

Coronavirus Effects

All P2P platforms have been affected by COVID-19, and PeerBerry are no exception. The positive side, however, is that they have maintained a good level of communication with their investors.

🙋 FAQs

Who can invest in PeerBerry?

Investors must be 18 years old and over, with a European bank account. Both private individuals and companies can join the platform.

Who are the loan originators?

PeerBerry provides a comprehensive list of loan originators, together with a description of each originator. You can view the whole list here.

Does PeerBerry have a Secondary Market?

No, PeerBerry does not have a secondary market at the moment.

Do I get the same interest on overdue loans?

Late or overdue loans generate the same interest per annum as current or active loans. They cover the delayed period, until the borrower makes a repayment or until the loan originator buys back the investment.

Do I pay taxes on my returns?

Taxes are not deducted by the platform on investments made by private individuals. It is the investor’s responsibility to pay the taxes on any income made through the platform. Taxation is based on the legislation of your respective country of residence.

Can I cancel my investments?

PeerBerry does not offer this option at the moment. They are, however, working on implementing this functionality on long term loans in the near future.

Will I be notified of any new investments?

PeerBerry sends out newsletters to whoever signs up to the service. They include monthly reviews, as well as alerts for any new investment opportunities and new loan originators.

Alternatives to PeerBerry

At the moment, the most popular alternatives to PeerBerry are Swaper and Income Marketplace. Have a look at those platforms if you want to diversify your funds across multiple sites.

📍 Conclusion

PeerBerry offers a multitude of investment opportunities, specifically with respect to short term and long term loans. The platform has been continuously expanding its loan originator network, which I believe is a step in the right direction.

As with many peer-to-peer platforms, PeerBerry offers an Auto Invest function and a BuyBack guarantee. Unfortunately, however, no secondary market is available yet.

The platform presents you with daily/weekly summaries of your transactions, as well as the ability to generate tax statements. This is a great tool to facilitate the monitoring of your investments. Keep an eye out for their blog for any important and new information they may publish.

Join PeerBerry

I’ve written about what I consider to be the best P2P lending platforms for investing, however after the debacles on various platforms during the past years, people have been reaching out to me to ask about which platforms they should not trust.

I think it’s a good idea to list which platforms I actively avoid so you can do your research about them and potentially avoid them as well.

Platforms that were in the original list and eventually went bust are marked with a strikethrough.

• Lendermarket – many delayed loans, the non-fulfillment of the buyback guarantee, and blocking of withdrawals via pending payments.
• EstateGuru – too many delayed loans, incompetent management.
• Nordstreet – complicated to link up your bank account; you need to first open a Paysera account.
• Kviku – They don’t communicate with investors anymore and lots of loans pending.
• Housers – no due diligence on their projects and a murky fee structure along with many loan projects that were never concluded. As close as a scam as you can get without technically being a scam. Currently being investigated by the police in Spain.
• Bondster – Way too many defaults and no response from the team, seems to be going out of business soon.
• Crowdestor – little due diligence done on projects, leadership does not inspire much confidence, clearly on a downward trend towards its eventual demise.
• Quanloop – similar team to Bondkick – apparently a failed ICO project that did more or less the same thing that Quanloop is doing. I don’t have strong negative feelings against this platform, but it’s too early to recommend it.
• CrowdEstate – Bad project selection.
• Fast Invest – funded by an ICO and too much focus on the founder’s story, which I don’t find believable anyway.
• Wisefund – sparse information about the projects they are funding.
• TFG Crowd – Sparse info about the managing team as well as being based out of coworking spaces. Not a serious financial platform.
• Iban Wallet – Very shady details uncovered about the company. Stay away unless they come clean.
• Dena Invest – all the indications of a “me-too” scheme with owners having no relevant experience.
• Grupeer – people have provided evidence of scam practices by this platform, active lawsuits are underway and interest payments have been frozen.
• Boldyield – not convinced about their way of measuring LTV, and I’ve had negative experiences with a similar platform in the past (Lendy).
• Monethera – shady buyback guarantee.
• Kuetzal – seems to be a scam.
• Envestio – featured several dubious projects in the past, although things seem to be improving lately.
• Agrikaab – ridiculous and obvious scam.

Hopefully, I’ll have some time to write about the platforms mentioned above in more depth at a later stage, if they survive till then.

There are some other platforms that I don’t necessarily think have serious management problems or are scams, however, I do avoid them just the same as I don’t think it’s worth the time and hassle to invest in them.

Lenndy is one such example. They are small players in the business and show no signs of catching up with platforms like Mintos nor are they offering anything innovative compared to the top players. I, therefore, see no reason to invest in them.

Bondora is another platform that is hated on by many investors, however, I’ve gotten decent and stable results over the years, which is more than can be said about most of the platforms on this page.

Do you agree with my choices? Let me know if there are other platforms you actively avoid investing in and why.

The P2P Platform Graveyard

Several P2P lending companies have gone bust over the past years. Here’s a list of them:

• CrowdEstate (2024)
• BulkEstate (2024)
• FastInvest (2023)
• Viventor (2023)
• IbanWallet (2023)
• Wisefund (2022)
• TFGCrowd (2022)
• Dena Invest (2020)
• Grupeer (2020)
• Boldyield (2020)
• Monethera (2020)
• Envestio (2020)
• Agrikaab (2020)
• Kuetzal (2019)
• FundingSecure (2019)
• Lendy (2019)
• Collateral UK (2018)

What’s your prediction for the next one to join the list?

So far I’ve lost money on Lendy. It was one of the first platforms I invested in, and since I didn’t know much about lending at the time, I luckily had the good sense to only invest a relatively small amount into the platform. It is now in administration and there is hope for some recovery of the debts, but I will lose part of my investment there. The owners of this platform sent millions of GBP to their accounts in the Marshall Islands and drove the company bankrupt. It’s one of the first big scams in P2P lending, and the fact that the platform was fully licensed in the UK should show us that being licensed does not mean that everything is rosy at a platform.

Overall the net result from investing in P2P lending platforms is still very positive, and that is what matters since we all know that these are relatively high-risk platforms in the first place, and there are bound to be borrower defaults, loan originators going bust and in some cases platforms themselves failing for myriad reasons.

The most important thing when you lose some money is to review what happened, understand what lessons can be learned, and move on. All investors lose money at some point, but as long as you’re right about your investments most of the time you will make money. It’s important to understand the concept of risk in investing and make peace with it right from the start.

Faced with the pain of losing money, many investors throw in the towel and write off investing altogether, but this is a mistake. As humans, we are wired to feel much worse about losing something than about gaining something, so you need to understand the psychology of risk and reward and push beyond it to continue learning and investing because it’s the only way to become a better investor and ultimately make serious money in the long run. Remember that if you’re not investing, your money is actually losing value due to the effects of inflation.

If you’re just starting and you’re feeling that the prospect of investing in P2P lending is daunting, you might want to check out my tips for evaluating P2P lending platforms as in that post I’ve shared all the lessons learned along the way and my criteria for deciding whether or not to invest in a platform.

A note on Trustpilot

Over the years I’ve come to understand that many new investors rely heavily on Trustpilot to formulate their decisions on whether to invest in a platform or not. By default, I don’t trust sites like this and would never rely on them to make up a decision.

I have looked at Trustpilot reviews a few times as some platforms proudly display their rating, but it turns out that several of them are clearly abusing the system. Basically, it consists in posting positive fake reviews while simultaneously taking down bad reviews.

I think the following video fully exposes the uselessness of Trustpilot as a review platform:

On this P2P lending glossary page you’ll find all the important terms you’ll encounter as an investor in P2P lending platforms around the world, with Mintos being my favorite platform. If there are any other terms I missed out on, let me know and I’ll add them in.

AML – Anti-Money Laundering. It refers to a number of policies that governments, banks, and financial institutions have to abide by. They are obligated to proactively monitor clients and new customers so corruption and money laundry can be prevented. They also have to report any kind of financial crime. When you as an investor are asked to supply picture id, address id and documentation on where the funds you are investing are coming from by e.g. supplying bank statements and copies of your paychecks, this is part of the AML procedures.

Annuity Type Loan – a loan in which both the loan interest and the principal will be paid periodically

Auto Invest – a tool for automated purchases of Claims on the Platform, functioning according to the User’s selected settings and used by the User to purchase Claims on his/her own behalf in accordance with the selected settings.

Borrower – a natural person or legal entity, wherewith the Loan Originator has concluded a Loan Agreement

Borrower APR – Annual Percentage Rate (APR) is the cost of credit as a yearly rate. It is designed to accurately disclose the true cost of credit and provide a standard basis of comparison for the costs of credit.

Bridge Loan – a short-term loan used until permanent financing is secured, or current obligations met. It provides immediate cash flow required to achieve a specific target, such as enhancing the value of the property or selling the underlying asset

Bullet Type Loan – a loan in which the loan interest will be paid periodically, with the principal amount being paid at the end of the loan period

Business Loan – a loan used to cover day-to-day expenses of the firm, acquisition of goods or equipment, business expansion, pending obligations, etc.

Buyback Guarantee – a buyback guarantee is a guarantee usually issued by the loan originator to the investor for a particular loan, that confirms the loan originator will repurchase the loan from the investor if that particular loan is delayed by more than a particular number of days, typically 60 days.

Cash Drag – money sitting in your P2P lending account that is not being lent. This is usually due to the platform not being able to offer any loans that match your Auto Invest criteria.

Crowdfunding – financing a project through a crowd of people instead of the traditional route of bank loans.

Crowdlending – a form of investment in which a group of people lend money to individuals or companies in exchange for interest, usually through an online platform.

Default rate / Delinquency Rate – the ratio between the value of defaulted loans and the value of the total loan portfolio.

Development Loan – a loan used to finance the construction or planning process of a project

First ranking mortgage – A lender of a first ranking mortgage is the lender that has the first right to proceeds from the forced sale of the property.

Full Bullet Type Loan – a loan in which both the interest and the principal will be paid at the end of the loan period

Installment Loan – a loan that is repaid through a set number of scheduled payments or installments; the minimum number of payments is usually limited to two. The loan term may last between a few months to 30 years.

Invoice Financing (also factoring) – a way for businesses to borrow money against the amounts due from customers’ invoices. When a business sells a product or service to a customer or another business, it often happens on credit in the form of an invoice with a number of days until the amount owed is due.

KYC – Know Your Customer, alternatively known as know your client or simply KYC, is the process of a business verifying the identity of its clients and assessing their suitability, along with the potential risks of illegal intentions towards the business relationship.

Loan Agreement – a loan, lease, credit agreement or a financial arrangement of different nature concluded between the Loan Originator and the Borrower.

Loan Originator – a lending company which is the Creditor, who, in compliance with the co-operation agreement concluded between the Creditor and the Platform, has authorized the Platform to transfer the Loan Originator’s Claims towards the Borrower, by using the Platform, and on behalf of the Creditor, to take other steps prescribed in the Agreement and in the Assignment Agreement.

Loan-to-Value (LTV) –  refers to a ratio between a loan amount and the collateral’s market value. An LTV ratio of 50% would mean that collateral’s value is twice that of the loan.

Payday Loan – a small, short-term unsecured loan which is sometimes referred to as a “cash advance”. Payday loans require the consumer to have a previous payroll or income, employment records, and a checking account. The repayment of these loans is not necessarily linked to the borrower’s payday.

Primary market – market in which we investors purchase loans or shares from the platform or loan originator.

Principal – the amount of money you originally put into your investment and now earn interest on in return. When you borrow money, it refers to the amount of money you borrow, excluding interest payments and fees.

Reverse Auction – In a conventional auction each bidder makes an individual judgement on how much the item is worth to them and bids up to that limit. The item is then won by the person who valuers it highest. In a conventional auction items usually go for above the reserve price; that’s kind of the point. So in a reverse auction for a loan each lender decides the minimum rate they are willing to accept from that borrower and the loan is funded by the lender(s) who are prepared to lend at the lowest rate.

ROI – Return on investment (ROI) is a financial metric used to analyze the efficiency of an investment. ROI = profit from an investment / investment cost, and is usually expressed as a percentage.

Secondary market – a facility that enables investors to trade loans between themselves. The secondary provides a mechanism to quickly sell your shares or loans for quick liquidity, and also provides a place to grab some good deals, since other investors might be offering shares or loans at a discount in order to achieve quick liquidity.

SEPA transfer – short for Single Euro Payments Area. It’s the newest format for cross-border Euro bank transfers. SEPA aims to make cross-border Euro transfers within this area equivalent to a domestic transfer within your own country. You should always use SEPA if available over wire transfers as they are faster and cheaper.

XIRR – a financial function that returns the internal rate of return (IRR) for a series of cash flows that occur at irregular intervals. It is commonly found in spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel.