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Seedrs Venture Fund

I made my first investment on Seedrs in February 2019, it was WeGaw a mobile app startup using Satellite data from the European Space Agency, based in Lausanne, Switzerland.

My next investment was the Seedrs EIS 100 fund, to those that follow me on social media, I started referring to it as Seedrs Venture Fund. EIS 100, which stands for Enterprise Investment Scheme, set out to disperse the total investment over a 100 companies fundraising on Seedrs that qualify for the EIS.  The main benefits of EIS is that you can claim back 30% from the investment upon the completion of you self-assessment tax submission.

With more than a year passed since my first investment and with Coronavirus in full swing not just in the UK but the rest of the world, the question I ask how is my Seedrs Venture Fund performing?

The Seedrs investment porftolio dashboard indicates that 100% of all my investments, which currently stand at 92 companies are currently active, none of them have IPO-ed, were sold or acquired, but most importantly did not go bankrupt.

Currently there are three companies fundraising again; which are:

Crua Outdoors

Crua Outdoors based in Tralee, Ireland who did manage to qualify for EIS, even as a foreign company. They specialise in outdoor, camping tents, who have raised £70,005 for 8.8% as early as 2015, with shares priced in at the time at £2.60, but my round came in 2019 August, the value per share was already at £14.51, and with the current fundraiser overfunding by 187%, this means that the initial investors back in 2015 have seen their shares rise over 458%. The company’s valuation has increased from £720,200 to £5.99 million but already nearly 41% in equity has been sold and another 5% up for grabs.

Smarterly

Smarterly is an online service which aims to help people save and invest directly from their payroll, by integrating with employers is also currently fundraising. However, their pitch is not available on Seedrs, they are either preparing their new pitch or fundraising privately or off Seedrs platform. This would be their third fundraiser, the first happened in 2018, £1,625,570 raised for 13.15% equity valued at £10,735,000 with the price per share at £10. While my turn came again with the EIS fund on the second round, which meant an increase in price per share of 23% priced at £12.30, with £2,572,422 raised for another 13.3% in equity valued at £16,723,855, with 762 investors participating.

Goodbox

The last of my investments which is again currently fundraising is Goodbox, a contactless payments provider for charities and NGOs to collect money on the high-street from passers by. Again I only participated in the second round, the first one took place in 2018, raised £2,641,925 for 24.9% of equity, valued at £7,968,277 from 687 investors, with share price at £18.21. While my turn took in 2020, the price per share increased to £28.53 by 56.7%, the company raised £1,272,894, from 747 investors, only for 6.34% of equity this time, valuing the company at £18,797,675.

The reason I have focused on these three companies in such a detail, is because startups go bust most often then failing to raise money to keep going, and they are raising money because most often they are running out of cash to keep going. We could further find out about their financial well being by looking at the company house account submissions, that this blog is only meant to be an update for my overall Seedrs Venture Fund.

What were my top five investments by company?

I am not going to disclose how much I have invested in Seedrs, at least for now. Further, I would like to add that I have a strong view and investment philosophy about having a balanced and responsible approach to investing and having a diversified portfolio of companies. However, my top companies are as follows:

Hectare

Hectare, an online market place for agricultural businesses and farming commodities, e.g. crops and livestock trading. I participated in the round with price per share set at £5 in late 2019, raising the total of £1,317,975, for 7.6% with the valuation of £16,005,500. While the first round took place in 2016, raising £150,000 for 15% equity, which meant you could own 1% of the company for £10,000, which three years later would have now been worth £50,000, with the price per share increasing from £1 to £5, over six fundraising rounds which gave up over 50% of the total equity.

The House Crowd

The House Crowd, a P2P investment platform in property. Raised £746,011 in their first round on Seedrs, offered 2.5% of the equity, with £28,920,388 valuation, share price at £6.86 from 469 investors.

CreditSpring

CreditSpring, a monthly subscription based service that provides 0% interest loans. Raised £1,566,032 for 13.8% from 303 investors, valuing the company at £9,780,000, with share price at £9.78 which I participated in. This company had a second fundraiser again in March 2020, but in a private Seedrs fundraiser, as another £1,020,925 was raised from only 34 investors, and for only 7.28% equity, share price at £11.20, valuing the company for £12,993,792. This investment has almost instantly put me in the green, with £1.42 profit per share, or 14.5% increase.

Brickowner

Brickowner, a P2P investment platform in property for a medium to long-term. Raised £267,572 for 2.74%, share price £5.77, valuing the company at  £9,504,690. However, this was their 7th fundraiser on Seers, with the first one taking place in early 2016, raising £102,055 for 14.3% equity, valuation of £607,000 from 92 investors, and share price at £0.61, which has given the first investors an over 850% increase in share price over four years. The Brickowner has sold nearly 39% of its equity in the seven different fundraisers over the four years.

It is also interesting to compare the the valuation of Brickowner and The House Crowd and to see which why two such similar online businesses, P2P property investment platforms, are valuing share prices differently, and if there is an arbitrage for the same type of business.

Yielders

Yielders, a P2P investment platform in property that yields rent payments until the property is sold and investments are returned to investors after a set of years. Raised £669,861 in late 2019, for 6.28% equity in the business from 479 investors, with the total valuation of £10,004,118, share priced at £7.89, which was their first round.

What is my Seedrs Venture Fund allocation according to sectors?

As we can see above from my investments, there is a heavy focus on finance and property, especially combined with technology, or what could be summed as Peer-to-Peer platforms, P2P for short. The main reason is my investment philosophy that the future is decentralized, a bit like Seedrs, venture funding democratised to allow people to invest in property backed loans who might not had ability to do so before the convergence of finance, property and online technology. Therefore, from the following Seedrs shareholding by sector we can see my total investments over 92 companies are spread as follows:

  1. 27% Property – part of this would include such companies as Brickowner and Yielders. I have also made investments in nHouse,
  2. 24% Finance & Payments – CreditSpring is the best example but also GoodBox would be included in this sector.
  3. 12.6% Saas/Paas (Software as a Service) – We Build Bots, Paperclip and already mentioned WeGaw.
  4. 11.9% Food & Beverage – Skinny Tonic, Drinkly, TheVeganKind, Quinola Mothergrain, Coconuts Organic, DryGro and The British Snack Co.
  5. 10% Energy – invested in companies such as Ripple, DeciWatt and Zeigo Energy.

Seedrs Venture Fund allocation according to countries

I am not going to list the countries here, as 95.7% investments were in companies based in the UK, this is mostly to do with the EIS100 fund, as it’s much easier for the UK based companies to quality for the Enterprise Investment Scheme, while many European companies who could quality for EIS, further information here, do not know or are not prepared to pay for the UK lawyer feeds and other admin costs.

As mentioned the WeGaw was the Swiss company, Crua Outdoors was the only odd one out to be based in Ireland and qualify for the EIS tax relief, as well not being part of the top five sectors. While the other company based in Spain, was The EU Startups publisher, this was made partially due to my interest in the publishing business, I am an owner of The EU Bubble online magazine. Plus Seedrs founder himself made an investment in the EU Startups, of £10,000, who have raised €73,001 for 5.58% from 81 investors, valued at €1,235,000 with €12.35 price per share. Shame about the startup conference in Barcelona that never happened due to COVID-19.

So how is my Seedrs Venture Fund looking after a year?

Well Seedrs portfolio overview is giving me the following:

IRR (Internal Rate of Return shows the annualised performance of your investments net of any fees (taking into account the impact of any shares bought or sold on the Seedrs Secondary Market as well as any other distributions received). Is currently at 0.08% – therefore not much of a gain after a year.

IRR (tax adjusted –  This is the IRR, as adjusted to take account of S/EIS tax reliefs.) aka this is the 30% return on the Enterprise Investment Scheme qualifying startups, is up by 18% once they are accounted and submitted in the self-assessment tax submission, and that is not difficult to do.

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Tickr Investment App Makes Investing Easy

Today tens of thousands of people, investing on average £120 each month, are using the Tickr investment app. 40% are female while half the investors with an average age of 31 are first-time investors.

Development of the Tickr app targets the next generation of investors who want to make money as well as have a positive impact on the world. Users can sign up and start investing with a minimum investment of £5.

About Tickr Investment App

Tom McGillycuddy and Matt Latham launched the business in early 2019. Both worked in investment management and had come to view the finance sector as largely inefficient industry. Businesses were earning revenue and profit indiscriminately, without questioning the source of the money nor its supposed impact.

To date, Tickr has raised £2.5 million in external funding, including more than £1 million from a Seedrs crowdfunding campaign.

Tickr allows investors to invest in ethical investment through ETFs. The app also provides access to publicly listed companies committed to positive impact investing. Impact investing is one of the fastest-growing sectors of today’s investment management industry. Globally, assets invested in impact are doubling each year, and are forecasted to hit $1 trillion by 2020.

Intended Impact

Development of the Tickr investment app is meant to fulfill the emerging demand for a new generation of potential investors. The interest of these investors is to grow businesses with a social impact benefit and positive investment footprint.

The investment is accessible for first-time investors who can put their money into specific companies spanning four separate themes; climate change, equality, disruptive technology, or a combination of the three.

1). The climate change theme includes renewable energy businesses that derive revenue from activities such as building wind farms.

2). Social Impact is investing in businesses that address gender equality and inclusion.

3). Disruptive Technology is investing in businesses that develop tech-based solutions for big social problems.

4) The fourth impact is a combination fund of the above three points.

Accomplishments to date

– In September 2018 Tickr raised an initial round of £860,000 from people in the investment management industry in Europe and the US

– Launched on both iOS and Android and have thousands of users across both platforms

–  It has grown from 3 to 14 staff members, with offices in London and Liverpool.

– FCA regulated as an Appointed Representative.

– The 2019 winner of Tech Nation Rising Stars

– Made it to the Wealthtech 100 annual list of the world’s most innovative Wealthtech companies in April 2019

Monetisation Strategy

The Tickr business model is clear as it charges everyone the same flat fee of 0.7% per annum on assets under management. Moving forward, Tickr expects to create additional revenue streams from the launch of Tickr branded ETFs.

Retail and institutional investors will be charged outside the app whilst it will be free to use in-app for Tickr users.

Pros

  • Promotes ethical investments
  • Low cost investing through ETFs
  • Tax-efficient accounts through investment ISAs

Cons

  • Access limited to mobile
  • Limited ETFs and market access
  • Startup risk is high (despite funds protection by FSCS)
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Crowdstacker Investors In Limbo Over Bad Debts

Were you were among the many investors looking for a no-hassle income investment, packaged in a tax-efficient Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA)? If the answer is yes, you probably invested with the Crowdstacker peer-to-peer lending (P2P) platform.

The platform offers loans to businesses that have the likelihood of potential growth. But not everything goes to plan as we’ll deduce from this article.

About Crowdstacker

Crowdstacker was amongst the earliest P2P platforms to gain full permission from the FCA. On 6th April 2016, it became the first P2P platform to launch an Innovative Finance ISA. Later in 2017, Crowdstacker broke the record for funding when it completed UK’s largest crowdfunded P2P loan to date. It received funding of over £15m from Crowdstacker’s users with Seedrs fundraising £815,694 on 19th December 2018.

Crowdstacker’s investment process provided a list of businesses that wanted to borrow money from investors. An investor would then manually select the business they want to lend to from Crowdstacker. Investors were to earn interest every quarter and receive their capital at the end of the loan term.

Two businesses were kin to borrower money from Crowdstacker, ‘Amicus PLC’ and the ‘Quanta Group’.

Amicus Bad Loans

Amicus is a short term property lending business. Lenders loaned their money to Amicus through Crowdstacker. Thereafter, Amicus loaned on a short- term basis to property developers, landlords and property professionals. These loans were known as bridging loans.

As fate would have it, Amicus went into administration in December 2018. The shocking twist in events that followed raised questions about the transparency of the P2P industry. Lately, the amounts lent through P2P platforms have increased leading to an increase in scrutiny.

Amid concerns that it may struggle to recover funds from Amicus, Crowdstacker investors are increasingly critical of the P2P lending platform,

Amicus’s subsidiaries were sold without prior agreement from Crowdstacker, with the proceeds going to another creditor.  This development raised questions on whether the platform will be able to recover investors’ money.

BurningNight Bad Loan

A similar case happened in 2017 when bar chain operator BurningNight raised more than £7.5m from investors via Crowdstacker’s platform. The target returns were 7% per annum over a three-year period. Investors were informed that the loan was secured over the assets and business of BurningNight with a first-ranking debenture. Freehold and leasehold UK properties were the purported assets.

Later that year, it emerged that BurningNight’s bars were underperforming and one of the company’s subsidiaries, B&W Logistics bought them in December 2017. However, B&W Logistics went bust in June 2018 and BurningNight itself went into administration in September the same year.

In December 2018, Crowdstacker emailed investors informing them of the verdict of the appointed BurningNight administrator. The administrator discovered that certain assets of BurningNight’s subsidiaries were sold to another company and the proceeds dished out to a third-party.

Why BurningNight assets were sold under the noses of Crowdstacker officials when the platform purportedly had first charge over the loan is still a mystery to many. Crowdstacker claims they’re waiting for the final verdict and are urging patience to allow the legal process to play out. But there’s little chance of investors recouping their capital investment in full as Crowdstacker seems “clueless” in their recovery approach.

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Airsorted Online Platform Review

Airsorted is an online platform established in 2015. The firm offers account management, guest vetting, price optimisation, and replenishment services. Their headquarters are in London, England, GB EC1V7LQ. Founder and CEO James Jenkins-Yates has an approval rating of 86%. Airsorted has approximately 50 employees and an annual revenue of £25 million.

To help fuel further growth – including expansion to Sydney, Australia – Airsorted has raised £13.3 million in 4 rounds, the latest round being June 2019. Concentric led the round with participation from some of Airsorted’s investors including Atami Capital and Pi Labs.

The booming sharing economy and websites such as Airbnb are popular for homeowners looking to make some extra money and travelers looking for somewhere comfortable to stay. In 2018, over 2 million people used Airbnb to visit the UK and over 3 million Britons used the site while holidaying.

How Does Airsorted Work?

The host signs up to the site and commits to renting out their homes for a minimum of eight weeks per year. In return, Airsorted manages the booking.

Hosts pay Airsorted 12% of their earnings. Assuming you’re renting out your place for 46 nights, the average Airbnb host in the UK makes £2,000 a year renting their place. Take off the Airsorted fee and it drops to £1,760. For someone using the site specifically to make extra money, this is quite a large chunk wiped off.

Airsorted will manage the entire listing for you. This includes the account itself, guest communication, your home photos, professional cleaning, and laundry.

The company also installs a police-approved key safe at each property it looks after so that guests can check-in whenever they want.

For the cleaners, Airsorted works like Uber taxi drivers. The cleaners sign up and are vetted by the company. Airsorted currently has roughly 500 cleaners in 22 cities around the world who all interact with the app.

One extra perk of the service is that hosts can set preferences, selecting the level of control to dictate how much freedom they give Airsorted to manage their property.

Why Airsorted?

Renting out your home or your spare room for a night is a popular way of making some extra money. But what happens if you’re on holiday in France and your tenant calls to report a flooded kitchen or broken washing machine?

The hassle of handling the repair and the costs involved can be too demanding, making the hassle of making that extra 200 quid seem a tad tedious. Airsorted promises to take care of such emergencies – for a fee.

Bottom Line

It’s not by accident that the design of the Airsorted website gives the impression of an Airbnb spin-off. However, while the two companies work parallel to each other, there is no official link between them.

According to founder and CEO James Jenkins-Yates, he sees it as a benefit for guests to know when they are booking a professionally managed property. This gives the guest confidence that the experience is going to be of a certain standard, or at the very least, provide assurance that a listed property does exist.

It’s only a matter of time and trust before Airsorted becomes a well-known brand, as it piggybacks’ on the success of established unicorns.

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Crowdproperty Review

Crowdproperty is a peer-to-peer lending platform that specializes in giving loans to small real estate developers. They use Brismo, an independent market-leading provider of loan performance data to verify each loan. Mike Bristow, Andy Hall, and Simon Zutshi founded Crowdproperty in Birmingham in 2014.

The three co-founders background is in the real estate sector and have extensive experience in the selection and management of real estate portfolios.

To date, Crowdproperty has lent around 50 million pounds on properties valued at over £120 million. The firm currently has over 8,500 investors. The company is both solvent and financially steady, with a perfect record of closing at 1.1 million pounds round of capital funding.

Crowdfunding site Seedrs conducted the campaign with contributions from 575 investors and a pre-money valuation of £15.7 million.

Crowdproperty managed to break even in 2018, and the same results are expected in 2019. This and other factors add to the stability of the firm considering many Peer to Peer lenders are still operating at a loss.

Crowdproperty Regulation

Crowdproperty is authorised and regulated by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) with full permissions under FCA number 723959. The firm gained FCA permissions in September 2017. It’s important to note that the FCA is not the same as the FSCS (Financial Services Compensation Scheme), thus capital is not secured as it would be in a bank.

Registration and Conditions for Investors

Registration with Crowdproperty is open to people living outside the UK. But only EU citizens who can provide proof of residence in the EU can invest. Plus the platform requires its investors to have a bank account with an English entity.

You don’t have to live in the UK to open a bank account there. Many banks, especially online banks don’t ask for proof of residence to open an account.

Who Can Borrow From Crowdproperty?

Crowdproperty lenders lend directly to the borrowers who have experience in property development. Crowdproperty knows many of these developers and the firm trusts them as they are return clients who have taken out loans for other developments.

Loan agreements are directly between the lender (investor) and the borrower. Crowdproperty only acts as a middle man, managing loans, payments and debt collection. Should it be required, Crowdproperty can add an extra layer of safety with its ability to take over and manage projects to completion and sale.

This is a better option than having to repossess a defaulted property which can take years to sell and dispose of. Instead, developments could be completed and sold in a matter of weeks or months.

Is Crowdproperty A Safe Investment?

Crowdproperty’s real estate experts thoroughly evaluate and carry out a rigorous Due Diligence on each project proposal, and does background checks of its partners. Each project must meet a criterion of 25% return on cost and loans do not exceed 70% of the LTV (Loan To Value). For larger loans, loans are staggered in tranches.

The firm only makes loans on properties in which it can register such loans as the first load. In case of default, Crowdproperty will have preferential rights over the property.

Pros and Cons of Crowdproperty

Pros

  • Established in 2014 and with proven experience
  • Authorised by the FCA and regulated since 1 November 2017
  • Simple registration process
  • One hundred percent return on investment
  • Profitability target of 8% annually
  • The first legal charge for security

Cons

  • The secondary market is non-existent
  • There’s no buy-back guarantee
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CrowdLords Property Crowdfunding Platform

CrowdLords is a two-sided, residential Buy-to-Let crowdfunding platform that brings together Investors and Landlords. Instead of CrowdLords buying the property, they act as intermediaries between the landlord or developer and investors. Launched in 2014, CrowdLords is registered as a limited company with registration number 08868588 in Hook, United Kingdom.

How does it Work for Landlords?

CrowdLords allow landlords to raise funds for a property investment without the need of going to a bank and take out a buy-to-let mortgage. The landlord relies on crowdfunding to gain the cash. Once you identify the property you wish to invest in, CrowdLords will appraise development and refurbishment issues. The minimum investment amount is £5,000. It’s the landlord’s prerogative to calculate the percentage of the rental income and property capital growth to offer the investors.

CrowdLords will value the property and if satisfied with the project, they’ll list on their website for investors to put in their money. After reaching the target, the money is pooled together into a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) which will buy the property. The SPV overseer is an independent director. Both the landlord and investors will have shares in the SPV.

The landlord’s responsibilities include maintenance and running costs. The landlord will receive the money once the independent director has approved the expenses.

How does it Work For Investors?

Before you can commit your money to CrowdLords, you first need to complete a one-off assessment to ensure you understand the risks involved. After approval, you’re free to browse the investments on offer. To invest you’ll need a minimum of £1,000.

How does CrowdLords Investments Work?

Each investment covers a set term, of 1, 3 or 5 years and defined by the landlord. Assuming the property is occupied, the investor benefits from a percentage of the rental income over this period, paid as a quarterly dividend.

At the end of the specified years, the landlord can continue by relisting the property on CrowdLords or sell the property on the open market. The investor will get a portion of the sale if the property has increased in value. If the landlord is a non-performer, the independent director appointed to the SPV can intervene to help resolve any issues.

The Fees

  • Landlords pay a £500 listing fee as well as a ‘success fee’ of 5% of the total amount of investment capital raised.
  • There is a ‘handling fee’ of 1% of all income paid out to shareholders. 10% ‘investment fee’ on the capital gain on the property being sold is also charged, but this is only when the investment was profitable.

Raising Capital

Despite being denied the opportunity to raise money on CrowdCube, CrowdLords is raising capital through private investment and crowdfunding such as Seedrs. According to Seedrs fundraising history, CrowdLords investment obtained so far is:

DATE INVESTMENT OBTAINED

11-Dec-2014 – £150,000.00

14-Jun-2019 – £152,490.00

Whilst in Beta, CrowdLords is offering 80 shares at £5.00 per share. Share price history is as below:

  • £5.00 – 24 June 2019 (Current price)
  • £0.61 – 30 December 2016
  • £0.65 – 22 June 2016
  • £2.50 – 11 December 2014

There is an absence of liquidity in property investments and currently, CrowdLords lacks a formal secondary market. This means you should only invest money you will not need in the short-term. Nonetheless, CrowdLords rates of return are significantly higher than the one’s banks and building societies offer. They’re also relatively unaffected by changes in the stock market.

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Investing In Property With Yielders

Several mainstream platforms have recently emerged offering investors small sums of capital opportunities to pool together their investments to gain a property one cannot afford alone. However, such platforms are not workable with sharia law owing to the debt they introduce into their offering. Today there’re several sharia-compliant property products including Yielders that fill this gap.

Yielders’ Islamic Finetech property platform offers investments from as little as £100 This allows a good chunk of the Muslim population to get involved in real estate investment opportunities without the burden of a mortgage or the hassle of being a landlord. In 2017, Yielders was the first Islamic Fintech platform to receive the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) authorisation. This gave investors more assurance resulting in impressive quarterly growth in investment value with a 260% increase in Q2 and 137% in Q3.

Yielders Investment Opportunities

Yielders’ crowdfunding investment platform puts UK property investment within everyone’s reach. The platform retails pre-funded investments so that the assets can generate pre-defined rental incomes. This means investors can start earning returns within 30 days. Each property investment has a lifespan of 2 to 5 years. The Yielders UK team manages the entire investment process to maximise gains.

The investor benefits in three ways:

i). Zero leverage – Yielders team of legal experts consolidate the assets in an SPV structure.

ii). Prefunded assets – Before offering the property to the public, Yielders property sourcing team first acquires the assets.

iii). Fully integrated – Yielders have streamlined the process of investing in property straight from the comfort of your mobile devices.

How to Fund Your Yielders Account

Once you become an investor, you’ll receive an e-wallet which you can top up via a debit card or bank transfer. Transaction fees include:

  • Initial fee – 2.5 initial fee covers the cost of setting up the asset structures and administration costs of onboarding investors.
  • Management fees – 10% management fee of the gross rental income. This covers the ongoing costs of managing the investment company and its assets.
  • Profit share – 15% profit shared is tied to investor returns. Yielders will receive 15% of the capital appreciation when an asset sells at a profit at the end of the agreed investment period.

Risks to Investors

Investors’ main risks come with conventional crowdfunding which could hold up the investment process. Subsequent risks include the need to put tenants into place, adhere to set terms agreed, and the lack of an exit strategy.

Yielders’ business model mitigates such risks by pre-funding assets. This gives an added layer of security and pre-defined rental agreements. This allows Yielders to minimise voids while maximising returns. All in all, investors are already aware of expected returns before they invest. Furthermore, Yielders has a secondary market which allows assets to be re-listed giving investors complete control of their funds.

Yielders offers a great platform for the Muslim population who lack enough cash or time to buy and own property. Though not as liquid as other investment options, this investment is ideal for people looking to invest for the next 3 to 5 years. In general, Yielders is a robust property investment platform that is beneficial to the UK Islamic market.

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Wirexapp Review

Based in London, Wirex is a digital money solution that combines cryptocurrencies and traditional personal finance services. The company aims to encourage the adoption of digital currencies by providing an easy to use and secure global platform. Dmitry Lazarichev and Pavel Matveev established Wirex at the tail end of 2014.

About Wirex

Since its inception, Wirex has had a transaction volume of $2 billion and 1.8 million users. The company headquarters are in London with additional offices in Kiev and Tokyo. Wirex is available in 130 different countries except for the United States of America.

The main aim of Wirex is for everyone around the world to have the ability to access banking services easily via internet access. The solution its fronting has no paperwork included and the company doesn’t take off days nor close for business.

The other goal for Wirex is to eliminate geographical limitations within finance. According to Wirex, everyone should be able to send and receive money to anyone anywhere within seconds.

Wirex Features

Wirex is both an application and an account that allows you to control your digital assets as well as traditional financial assets. Wirex began life as a provider of virtual cards before expanding to its current services. The company provides a personal banking solution that combines traditional banking and cryptocurrencies.

The cloud-based personal banking offers debit cards, mobile banking, and remittances. You can transact GBP, USD, and EUR through debit and credit cards. Buy, store, send, spend and convert Bitcoin and fiat currencies.

Wirex card provides both buying and selling of Bitcoins by accepting transfer via bank linking accounts. The card offers many blockchain opportunities which translate to cheaper and hassle-free services.

Wirex Visa Payment Card

The contactless Visa card allows you to make payments using your Wirex account. Thanks to the card, you can spend your cryptocurrency the same way as any fiat currency. Wirex markets its visa card as the only Visa in the world that allows you to convert crypto into fiat currency.

Currency Accounts

Wirex currency accounts work the same way as a regular bank account, with a sort code and designated account number. Make and receive deposits and use the linked debit card for regular payments. You can use the service with several clicks thanks to integrated technologies for global payments and peer-to-peer transfers. Manage your account via the free app (available for iOS and Android) or on the desktop.

Cryptocurrency Wallets

Enjoy secure wallets for Bitcoin, Litecoin, XRP and WAVES with support from online and mobile applications. Users can choose from one of six different currency wallets. The secure wallets have cold storage features for cryptocurrency, multi-sig functionality, and traditional currencies.

Bitcoin Exchange

To buy Bitcoin via Wirex, you’ll need to fund your account via credit card, bank transfer, PayPal, altcoins or using other payment methods. Converting your balance into Bitcoin is free. The fully integrated platform allows you to spend your Bitcoin using the payment card as everything is in one place.

Pros

  • Quick verification
  • Has a UK FCA e-money license
  • Contactless Visa Debit cards
  • Browser-based and mobile apps
  • Crypto-friendly business accounts

Cons

  • Maintenance fee of £1 per month
  • Wirex cards are not accepted everywhere
  • Can buy and sell cryptocurrencies cheaper elsewhere
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NEO Finance Peer-To-Peer Lending Platform

The largest peer-to-peer lending platform in Lithuania is NEO Finance. Established in 2015, the platform has consistently increased its granted loans and currently has over 7,800 active investors. As a loan originator, NEO Finance is not a marketplace like Fast Invest, Mintos, or PeerBerry. NEO Finance users have more control of the platform, and there’s more insight into the identities of borrowers. This allows lenders to be more specific on whom to lend.

How it Works

You can apply for a loan on the NEO Finance platform which then does a credit risk evaluation, sets interest rates and searches for lenders to fund the loan. Investing in consumer loans is as little as €10. The average loan amount on the platform is €2,700 and the average loan term is 49 months.

Having an unlimited e-money institution license allows NEO Finance to operate anywhere in the EU. The platform is similar to a banking system where user accounts have their own International Bank Account Number (IBAN) number. Instead of sending money to NEO Finance, you send to a Lithuanian bank account under your user name. This setup gives your investment an extra safety feature.

Regulation and Licenses

Apart from its rapid financial progress, NEO Finance is also at the forefront when it comes to regulation. Other NEO Finance credentials include:

  • Supervised by the Bank of Lithuania
  • The Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license from the Bank of Lithuania
  • Is in the public list of consumer credit providers
  • Is in the public list of P2P lending platform operators

NEO Finance Investment Opportunities

NEO Finance provides consumer loans of up to €15,000. Interest rates are based on the level of investor demand and risk factor. Smaller loans have less stringent payment conditions with lower default rates. Both the loans and borrowers are categorized into three types: A, B, and C. Category C borrowers have higher interest rates as they’re riskier. The interest rate and risk factor are lower for Category A borrowers. The investor can also view different data fields concerning borrowing including assets owned, income, previous debts repaid, other liabilities, and credit score.

Buyback Guarantee

The platform offers a buyback guarantee on their loans, though it’s different from other platforms. The buyback guarantee covers 50 to 80 percent of the face value in case of loan default. But this depends on the credit score of the borrower.

Provision Fund

Same as buyback guarantee, provision fund fully covers you in case the borrower defaults on their loan. But its use is not mandatory. The Provision Fund is akin to having insurance, whereby NEO Finance buys back defaulted loans using their assets as collateral for the repurchased loans

Is NEO Finance Safe?

Authorisation and licenses from several authorities including the EMI license make NEO Finance safe. Furthermore, outstanding loans and the default rate is low, and the company has the potential to recover money from defaulters.

The NEO Finance platform ticks the correct buttons for a robust P2P lending platform. A look at the company’s annual reports offers encouraging signs to potential investors. Though yet to be profitable, NEO Finance has more cash and equivalents than what is necessary for provisions. If you’re looking for a secure platform with a high return for investors, then you should consider NEO Finance.

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ETHLend Review

Incorporated in Estonia, Aave (a Fintech Company) owns and operates ETHLend. Despite its registration in Estonia, the bulk of its operations are in Helsinki, Finland. Created as a decentralized peer-to-peer borrowing and lending platform for cryptocurrency, ETHLend aims to resolve loan defaults and save lenders from losses. It also allows cryptocurrency holders to gain value from their digital assets without having to sell their assets.

How Does ETHLend Work?

ETHLend uses the Ethereum blockchain to enable secure lending with a P2P lending model. The borrower creates an Ethereum based smart contract using the data input such as loan amount, interest rate requested, and duration of the loan. The borrower also adds the address for the cryptocurrency and the amount to use as collateral.

The cryptocurrency put as collateral is transferred to the smart contract, availing the loan to lenders for funding. The collateral is transferred from the smart contract to the lender to cover the loan in case the borrower fails to repay the loan.

After receiving the tokens, the lender can choose to sell them on the open market or keep them. Because the whole process is via smart contract on the Ethereum blockchain, it’s secure. Even ETHLend cannot access the tokens held as collateral in the smart contract. This process creates a superior lending service that doesn’t require a middle-man making it less expensive for borrowers and less risky for lenders.

You can borrow various cryptocurrencies on the ETHLend platform using ETH, BTC, LEND and 100 other ERC-20 tokens as collateral for loans. The required LTV is 50% or 55% when using LEND tokens. Most loans are backed to 200% collateral.

How to Use ETHLend

Apart from unlocking value by providing borrowers with liquidity and unlocking value from held cryptocurrency, you can use the platform to fund ICOs. You can even peg ETHLend to the USD or other fiat currencies to reduce volatility for lenders.

Benefits of ETHLend

Trustless lending platform – The platform prevents anyone from manipulating or changing loans and loan data. You get full transparency about borrowers and lenders. ETHLend is also a global platform that allows access to billions of unbanked world citizens.

Leverage digital assets – Get cash now for your digital assets and use the cash as your digital assets value appreciate. ETHLend allows you to access cash for investments, business startups or emergency cases.

Risks of ETHLend

Poor disclaimers and process – The ETHLend website throw users to the deep end of borrowing or lending without a clear guideline of how the platform operates, fees charged, and other important aspects of the loan process.

Arbitration process – If two parties disagree over something can ETHLend offer an impartial third-party to listen and resolve the dispute? As the platform continues to attract more users, such problems will crop up eventually.

The ETHLend system helps minimize risks to lenders while at the same time maximize benefits to borrowers. This is evident for users unlocking the liquidity of their digital assets. The platform also enables users to continue holding cryptocurrencies and enjoy price appreciation. This takes place while unlocking the current cash value to fund a business or participate in extra investments.