Tag Archives: crowdfunding

Wisefund crowdlending platform overview

Wisefund is a platform where individual lenders meet businesses looking for loans, bringing business lending to more affordable level while providing opportunities to individuals letting their free funds bring stable and above the average annular returns. Each project listed (and coming up to be listed) is thoroughly checked, with very comprehensive due diligence done to ensure each borrower is a guaranteed high return opportunity for investors.

Wisefund has established a cooperation with Nord Capital Markets where the latter provides services of business analysis of the businesses willing to raise capital on the Wisefund platform. Nord Capital Markets – a stock company founded in 2009 – is a privately held company focusing on global financial markets and financial analysis.

Nord Capital Markets has over 10 years of experience in analyzing global and local companies in respect to their creditworthiness. In assessing the financial stability of companies, Nord Capital Markets utilizes classical financial analysis toolkit – analysis of the borrowers’ financial statements and projections. At the same time firm’s analysts take into account local peculiarities and economic realities when assessing the creditworthiness of the companies.

If you invest for the first time at Wisefund don’t forget that you can get  a 0.5% cashback bonus for the investments made in the first 180 days.

Who can invest at Wisefund?

Any person can be a lender on Wisefund as long as one meets the following criteria:
a) be over 18
b) have valid passport or ID card
c) has a bank account in financial institution registered and licenced in a country of the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland
d) are a resident of a country from the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland

How it works?

First, register as a lender with Wisefund. Second, verify your identity. Once that’s done, transfer funds into your Wisefund lender account. Once these steps are completed, you’ll be able to loan to available opportunities immediately.

It’s quite simple to lend on Wisefund:
Search our ‘Open projects’ and choose the businesses to which you’d be willing to lend (based on interest rate, minimal investment, loan term and/or project description), then simply select an amount to lend and you’re done. You’ll receive interest payments as per schedule, and the principal will be repaid with the last interest payment accrued.
The funds will be transferred from your Wisefund lender account to the Wisefund account of the borrower. When the loan is issued to the borrower, you’ll hold a loan contract. This entitles you to monthly repayments at the interest rate that accompanied the loan request.

Wisefund don’t charge lenders any fees. Wisefund earns commissions from borrowers for each successfully funded loan.

What happens if a loan does not meet its target?

As soon as it opens for loan requests, each lending opportunity has its target sum and timespan detailed on the Loan details of each loan (funding target term may be extended with the approval of the borrower and current active investors) to get fully funded. In cases when the open loan request doesn’t reach its target by the funding deadline, Wisefund credits the Lender’s account with the invested principal, and no interest is paid. Interest is paid only for fully funded Loan opportunities.

The buy-back guarantee

Borrowers who have defaulted will be pursued with debt collection. But for the safety of our investors, we’ve entered into an agreement with a third party investor who guarantees to buy out any loan that is late for more than 60 days at the rate of remaining principal, and will pursue debt recovery actions themselves. The investor bears no responsibility on defaulted loans which are covered by the buy-back guarantee. The borrower will have to meet all the costs, as investors aren’t liable for any additional expenses. Currently all loan opportunities listed are covered by the buy-back guarantee.

Monethera peer-to-peer crowdinvesting platform overview

Monethera, based in Tallinn, Estonia, started as a private investment fund in 2017, and as of now has become one of the leading platforms in the industry of “Finance 2.0”, which offers investors from all over the world high-level investment opportunities via crowdinvesting marketplace.

With Monethera it is very easy to become an investor. All you need is to register on the website and choose one or several investment projects online. Monethera platform makes it easy and comfortable to start investing in high- tech, energy, real estate or other projects with help of background information, situational analysis, development prospects, market overview, repayment schedules and other important data attached to each project by the Monethera team.

If you invest for the first time at Monethera don’t forget that you can get € 5 and a 0.5% cashback bonus for the investments made in the first 180 days, more details HERE.

With start of the Age of Information and growing power of crowd-investing online marketplaces such as Monethera, investing has become easy and painless. You don’t have to be a professional in financial sphere or have a significant amount of money to make profitable investments in various projects. To diversify your investment portfolio, you’ll need as much as 100 EUR as a minimum investment.

Who is eligible to invest?

Private investors can use platform and start investing without any verification, but in order to withdraw profits they have to provide documents and undergo verification process.

Monethera is more focused on European projects, that is why all the investment accounts are offered in EUR only. Payment in other currencies will undergo conversion to EUR at our bank’s rate. Please note that investors can only make payments from their own private bank accounts.

Investing

Investing at Monethera is very simple: create an account, choose one of the selected investment opportunities and the amount of money you want to invest. The entire investment process takes place online and requires just a few minutes of your time. According to established schedule, you will be receiving fixed interest payments. The minimum investment is just 1 EUR per project.

At Monethera you can create diversified investment portfolio without having to invest large amount of money. All you need is as little as 1 EUR invested in a single project to start your investment journey. Later on you will be able to reinvest your income from successful investments in other projects to make your portfolio more diversified.

The minimum funding deposit is 100 EUR.

Investors who use platforms with shared IBANs (like Transferwise and some others) must send Monethera a payment proof in order of being identified.

As of now, credit cards as a mean of adding funds to investment account are not supported by Monethera. It is also not possible to use Western Union, crypto-currency or other ways of money transfer. Monethera doesn’t accept any third party funds. All funds must come from the bank accounts of registered investors.

How does the buyback guarantee work?

The buyback guarantee means that any Monethera participant can reclaim invested money from any of his or her invested projects and instantly receive it. Cost of performing a buyback is shown in the project description.
It should be noted that in some cases the cost of buyback makes a considerable percentage of the invested assets.
All interest payments transferred to participant’s investment account prior to buyback operation remain in possession of the investor.

 

 

 

Crowdestate real estate crowdfunding marketplace overview

Crowdestate logo

Crowdestate is a real estate crowdfunding marketplace offering high-quality, pre-vetted real estate investments. Their close relationships with different local real estate developers and brokerage companies give them access to a large number of off-market real estate investments. Only the best investments surviving the due diligence process are published for investing.

While all relevant information required for making proficient investment decisions are attached to each investment, all investment decisions are made by the investors based on their personal investment preferences and risk tolerance. Extensive background information, business plans, and financial models combined with a low 100 euro minimum investment are making real estate investing quick and easy.

Online marketplace and underlying technology provide access to the real estate investments regardless of your location or time zone.

At the same time, Crowdestate is a perfect partner for real estate entrepreneurs having a bright investment idea but lacking etiher capital or liquidity. Crowdestate is their professional funding partner, consolidating hundreds or thousands of smaller investment orders into a single lump sum.

How it works and who can invest?

You should be a registered user to gain access to the investment opportunities. Before investing, you are expected to provide Crowdestate with necessary information and confirmations required by the law.

As a registered user, you can open one or several investments accounts (for instance, one for your personal holdings and the other for your investment company). All your transactions (investments, distributions, payments etc) will be reflected on your investment account.
You should have sufficient free funds on your investment account to start investing. Funds can be added to your investment account through wire transfer, please always use investment account’s unique reference number to ensure smooth transactions.
Please review investment opportunity before making any investment decisions. Crowdestate’s investment opportunities are of different length, risk profile and return expectations. Please consider the suitability of any investment opportunity to your personal risk tolerance and investment horizon. If the available opportunity does not match with your preferences, please do not invest in it. We are regularly adding new real estate investment opportunities and in time you will find a suitable one.
If you have found a suitable real estate opportunity, please start investing by entering your investment amount and concluding the necessary agreement. At the moment of signing the agreement, Crowdestate will make the reservation in your investment amount on your investment account.
In case the funding campaign is successful (the investment opportunity gets funded before the deadline of the funding campaign), Crowdestate will proceed to concluding the investment transaction. During the settlement process, your investment amount will be debited from your investment account and transferred to the Sponsor.
In case the funding campaign fails (the investment opportunity falls short of full funding before the stated deadline), your investment agreement and the reservation on your investment account are automatically cancelled.
Investors from all countries are welcomed in Crowdestate loans except US citizens (due to the regulations the US government has set).

Investment minimum and maximum amount

The minimum amount of any single investment is usually EUR 100,00 (one hundred euros), and investments can be made with 100 euro intervals (i.e 100, 200, 500, 1000 euros etc).

Any new investment opportunity opens with a 24 hour prebooking period. This is a period where one investor can make one investment order within the preferred maximum investment amounts. The final investment amount will be determined by the number of prebooking investors. It will remain between 100€ and your submitted maximum investment amount.

Different types of capital and their meaning

Equity is the capital placed in the company by its owners. The owners are paid the last, after all liabilities have been paid.

Mezzanine is a hybrid capital (subordinated loan or preferred equity) that lies between equity and secured loan. It has a lower risk than equity – mezzanine financing is repaid before equity, but after all bank obligations have been fulfilled. In addition to the usual interest, bonuses that depend on the profitability of the project may be added to the mezzanine capital.

Unsecured loan is a layer of capital between equity and secured loans. They are riskier than secured loans, but also more profitable. Unsecured loans are repaid to the owner of the capital after all secured debts have been repaid.

Secured loan is the safest and thus the least profitable type of capital. The loan is secured against a collateral, which is usually a mortgage on the assets of the company or some other type of collateral. Secured loans are always repaid in the first priority.

Different types of real estate investment and their meaning

Rental – Investments to projects with available cash flow.

Development – Investments to property development projects (the construction and sale of buildings).

Speculative – Risky early-stage investments to a property where the main parameters of the development project are known, but they can change significantly during the implementation of the project (e.g. the development process of the detailed plan and its duration as well as building rights).

Various asset classes and their meaning

Working capital is a capital needed for financing the running operations of a company.

Investment is a capital placed in the development of a company, in particular in its main assets.

Bridge financing is a temporary short-term financing, usually later replaced by a long-term and more stable financing solution.

M&A is financing mergers and takeovers of businesses.

 

Envestio peer-to-peer crowdinvesting platform overview

Envestio logo

 

If you invest for the first time at Envestio don’t forget that you can get € 5 and a 0.5% cashback bonus for the investments made in the first nine months (270 days), more details HERE.

 

Started as a private investment fund, now Envestio is a modern crowdinvesting platform, which offers new ways of making investments in traditional and innovative investment projects. Envestio offers investors premium level investment opportunities, which were carefully chosen from many applications and thoroughly studied by Envestio analytical team. Entrepreneurs from different industries can apply for structured financing at Envestio platform and quickly receive it from the pool of registered private investors. Envestio takes care of the transparent full-cycled fundraising process, and ensures honest and unbiased information exchange between all participants of every investment project.
In the Age of Internet crowdfunding concept swiftly became popular as an alternative way of finding necessary financing for different projects. Unlike the traditional bank financing, crowdfunding is highly decentralized concept, where many investors are participating in each project with investments of small or moderate size. Crowdfunding is being used to finance project of different size and nature, such as commercial ventures, cultural and charity events, scientific research, development of new products, etc. In many cases, people, contributing to a crowdfunding project are not expecting a monetary return, especially in case of funding cultural or charity project, or the return is clearly symbolic, like “thank you” booklet or CD.

Since its establishment in 2014, Envestio has been investing funds in three industries: real estate, energy, cryptomining. A new step into other business area was made in the end of 2017. As of April 28, 2018 an innovative business of cryptocurrency mining constitutes the biggest portion of Envestio’s historical portfolio with 42% of total funds invested, followed by energy sector with 27%, and real estate projects with 27%. 3% were invested in other industries.
As of April 30, 2018 Envestio has successfully conducted and exited 20 investment projects, by fully receiving back principal and interest from our cooperation partners. The total sum of provided capital exceeds EUR 6,3M, while accumulated income from interest exceeds EUR 1,7M level.

What type of investments can be made?

– Crowdinvesting
Crowdinvesting is somewhat more specific than ordinary crowdfunding as it is related to funding business ventures, newly established or already existing companies with a straightforward purpose of earning interest on invested funds. Certain number of investors join a pool to complete the announced need of a project or company for specific type of funding. Profits or revenues are distributed to them according to previously approved schedule and proportionally to the share invested by each investor. Most crowdinvesting platforms allow their participants to start investing from very fairly small amounts, such as 50 or 100 EUR. Ordinary people received a great alternative to traditional bank deposits, which are noticeably less flexible and profitable than investments made through crowdfunding platforms.
– Bridge investing
Bridge financing is an interim financing option used by companies and other entities to solidify their short-term position until a long-term financing option can be arranged. Bridge financing normally comes from an investment bank or venture capital firm in the form of a loan or equity investment. This type of financing only occurs when a company’s runway is shorter than its future financing options, and it needs to remain solvent in order to obtain such long-term financing.

Who is eligible to invest?

All adults may become investors at Envestio. With the minimum investment amount of only 100 EUR, the idea behind Envestio is that everyone should be able to participate in different innovative and traditional investment projects.
It is free to register at Envestio and start investing using the platform.
Investors do not pay any fees for their investment at Envestio either. Therefore, the entire payment is used for the investment with no deductions.
In some specific cases there are one-off fees, associated with international bank transfers.

In what currencies can investments be made?

Investment accounts of Envestio participants are maintained in EUR, and money payouts to Envestio participants are done in EUR as well. Currently there is no blockchain/token technology used behind Envestio operations. Envestio does not convert invested funds into any kind of crypto-currency.
At the moment, Envestio is not accepting credit cards as a mean of adding funds to Envestio investment account. This possibility is still being analyzed in order to comply with AML legislation and be economically viable for Envestio business. Also, it is not possible to add funds by Western Union, crypto-currency, or any kind of electronic money transfer. Envestio portal accepts only safe bank transfers, done by Envestio participants from their private bank accounts.

Investing

You do not need much capital to invest successfully, you can also create your own diversified investment portfolio at Envestio step by step. Indeed, you can start with small investments from 100 EUR in single project and expand your portfolio over time, you can reinvest profits from successful investments in new projects, etc. As a result, your portfolio will become broadly diversified over time.
Investing at Envestio is straightforward: You choose one of the premium investment opportunities in which you want to invest and decide how much money to invest. The entire investment process takes place online and requires just a few minutes of your time. In return for your investment, you will receive fixed interest payments according to established schedule. The minimum investment is just 100 EUR.
Envestio has already pre-analysed all investment opportunities offered on the platform. In fact, only very small % of companies applying for a financing round on Envestio are accepted and presented further to Envestio participants.
Investments done through Envestio are not just interesting and high-profitable; those are also a way of supporting entrepreneurship and innovation in the region. Many company founders, discoverers, and visionaries often had troubles to find people among traditional investors, who shared their vision and recognized opportunities and potential of their business ideas.
Investors at Envestio are different from that. They share the ideas and see in reality that small things can eventually morph in something big and successful. Envestio participants help new ideas and economic progress, they support innovation and creation of jobs, making a positive contribution to society while earning high profits. It is the best example of win-win situation.
Envestio business model includes cooperation with investment project owners in the field of providing bridge financing/temporary equity replacement for their business projects. Funds, gathered via Envestio portal, constitute a certain share of total financing that is attracted to specific project, besides traditional funding from banks etc. Respectively, the weighted average cost of capital (WACC) for these projects is much lower than interest rate, payable to Envestio participants.
Making investments in premium investment projects at Envestio offers great opportunities, but these investments still are risky as any other. In the worst case, the entire investment, including principal and interest amount may be lost. At the same time, Envestio participants are under no obligation to continue funding the problematic project.
Envestio participants can minimize the risk by diversifying their investment portfolio. Professional investors often follow this strategy because it causes the risk to be distributed among several investments. In this way, successful investments with high return can balance out other less successful investments.
Envestio currently is offering investment projects with yearly interest rate from 12% up to 22%, depending on length and risk category of the project.
Financing of cryptomining hardware industry is considered most risky investment with the highest return, while real estate industry has the lowest risk category and moderate interest rates.
All interest payments already transferred to the Envestio participant’s investment account according to the project’s schedule remain in possession of the investor. Interest that is accrued, but not yet received, is written-off at the moment of confirming the buyback.

How does the buyback guarantee work?

Envestio buyback guarantee means that any Envestio participant at any moment can sell an investment from his or her investment portfolio back to Envestio and instantly receive invested money back his or her investment account. Since the funds, gathered via Envestio portal, constitute a certain share of total financing that is attracted to specific project, besides traditional funding from banks, Envestio is sufficiently capitalized to execute any buyback immediately.
Cost of performing buyback is calculated and shown to Envestio participant in Envestio personal area.
Please note that in some cases cost of buyback can account to substantial percentage of invested amount.

Upcoming platform improvements and new planned events

– Soon the webpage will be available in 6 languages, including Spanish, Italian, Estonian, and Russian besides already existing German and English
– Auto-invest function will be added within June-July 2018
– Secondary market for investments is going to be introduced after auto-invest is in place
– Mobile app for iOS and Android will appear within 1-1,5 months (July-August 2018)
– Around 10 new investment projects are being prepared for presentation at the platform

Bulkestate real estate crowdfunding marketplace overview

Bulkestate logo

Bulkestate OU is a real estate crowdfunding platform with a focus on funding new development or re-development projects as well as structuring group buying deals to acquire small size (such as one apartment) real estate at wholesale prices (sales price of an entire building). Bulkestate was founded and commence operations since 2016.

Bulkestate operations are regulated by general commercial legislation of Estonia and European Union. In order to operate as a financial institution, Bulkestate has received a financial institution license in Estonia.

The main difference between Bulkestate and other real estate crowdfunding platforms is a combination of both lending and group-buying services. It provides an efficient solution if initial loan arrangements fail and they might have to foreclose and sell the real estate mortgage. This way the security of the investment project increases, providing more guarantees for the investors. A significant part of their team are experts in the field of real estate development and organisation of the sales process, which is another important differentiator as they have hands-on experience with the due diligence and approval process. Furthermore, they have the necessary capacity to take over management of projects, which do not proceed as planned and deliver the promised result.

Who is eligible to invest?

Any company or any person over the age of 18 can invest in any of the active investment opportunities on the Bulkestate platform.

The minimum investment is 50 EUR. There are no restrictions on the investment amount, yet it cannot exceed the loan amount. Investments may be made several times till the investors reach the goal of the funding for the particular investment object.

Loans

Bulkestate has clear and strict guidelines when selecting investment projects to offer for the investors. The main prerequisite is clarity in the planned repayment of the loan, which may depend on the market demand for specific properties, quality of the project and quality of the development project team. We carefully evaluate the demand for the particular real estate property. Thus, primarily the saleability of properties is assessed as well as the security of exit options upon completion of the project. Also, the general policy is to finance loans where LTV is 70% or less.

Group-buying deals

You can keep an eye on your investments in your Bulkestate user account. Your account displays aGroup buying deal or bulk-deal occurs when an owner of an apartment building wants to sell all apartments (entire building) at once. We publish the offer on our platform giving a chance to purchase one or more apartments in the building. The deal is successful if all apartments are bought, meaning that there is a potential buyer for every apartment in the building and a bulk-deal can take place.ll pending investments.

In group-buying, you are buying an entire apartment and receive the full legal owner title, yet you cannot make an investment in one of the apartments.

How can funds be transfered

To add money to your account, choose an option “Add funds”, set the deposit amount and make a transfer from your bank account (minimum of EUR 50). The bank transfer typically takes 3 to 5 business days to complete after initiating a deposit. Bulkestate makes your funds available in your account as soon as the payment is received.

Investing

There are two ways to invest in loans: manual investing or automatic investing using Autoinvest.

Auto Invest is an investment tool that automatically invests available funds on behalf of investors, basing on their chosen criteria. Once investors set their investment criteria, Auto Invest automatically places orders for matching settings. Investors can review, adjust or pause Auto Invest at any time. There are no additional costs for using Auto Invest.

 

 

 

 

 

What is Crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is not a new concept, in fact, it’s been around for centuries. Investopedia describes it as:

Crowdfunding is the use of small amounts of capital from a large number of individuals to finance a new business venture. Crowdfunding makes use of the easy accessibility of vast networks of people through social media and crowdfunding websites to bring investors and entrepreneurs together, and has the potential to increase entrepreneurship by expanding the pool of investors from whom funds can be raised beyond the traditional circle of owners, relatives and venture capitalists.

Which can be summarised as decentralizing the banking monopoly by bringing together investors and people in need of finance. It’s unique compared to the traditional method of raising capital (especially a start-up) because your funding options were limited to a small group of wealthy individuals and institutions – today the power is in the hands of the individuals.

3 types of crowdfunding

Whilst there are still many niches of crowdfunding, here are the top 3:

  • Donation Model – This is commonly used for charity projects, such as raising funds for medical costs, foreign aid or specific organizations. Those who donate do not receive anything in return as their motive is usually believing in the specific cause or wanting to help. Two of the biggest platforms in this space are www.justgiving.com and www.gofundme.com.
  • Reward Model – If someone has an idea for a product, they may release the prototype of this on a page like www.kickstarter.com and allow people to make pre-orders. No equity is given here and it gives the business owner the opportunity to ‘Kick-start’ their project with guaranteed customers in the pipeline.
  • Equity model – You’ve seen Shark Tank and Dragon’s Den right? Imagine this, but instead of a panel of 5 billionaire’s you have a panel of thousands of ordinary people willing to invest their hard earned money for a given percentage of a business. The end goal for investors is to receive an appreciation in their initial investment based on the future success of the company, for example, profits and dividends.

The bottom line for the success of each model is a secure and trusted platform that connects both end users. A huge benefit of using these platforms is that some have a screening process that validates the concept or project before posting, it’s then published in a clear and understandable way for everyone. From the perspective of the person looking to raise the funds, they have the advantage of reaching a vast market of investors with most of the marketing and PR taken care of by the platform itself.

What is the difference between Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending and Crowdfunding?

In short, crowdfunding as an investment focuses on the equity based reward whereas P2P investments (occasionally referred to as ‘Debt Crowdfunding’) fund a share of a loan which can be issued for personal, business, real estate use and more. With crowdfunding, your investment grows if the company grows and in turn makes a profit. On the other hand, your P2P investments can start to generate a return for you very quickly as borrowers start to make their monthly repayments, returning your initial principal and also interest on a monthly basis.

Generally, P2P lending can be viewed as lower risk and does not require the investors to have any previous financial knowledge as most platforms take care of all the hard work of screening the borrowers for you.

What are the benefits of crowdfunding and P2P other than interest?

This form of micro-financing truly is something revolutionary. Giving the power back to the individuals to mass fund a project that they truly believe in has a positive snowball effect on the wider economy. Projects and borrowers that traditionally may not have been funded by the banks (and would therefore have been forgotten about) now have a unique chance, with the end result being:

  • More small companies
  • More jobs
  • More social mobility
  • Less social inequality
  • Integrated society
  • More value and control for investors

Source: Bondora.com

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