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03/03/2021
Sneakypeer Newsletter Week 9
Welcome back to the Sneakypeer newsletter! Below you will find industry news from last week.
Capitalia about to leave Mintos
Capitalia, a lending company based in the Baltic states, was one of the first to join Mintos in 2015. During the past years, the company has experienced major growth and changes in its financial strategy, mainly prioritizing the distribution of loans over €100 000 to medium-sized companies. Mintos, however, focuses on financing smaller businesses, therefore both companies have agreed to terminate their partnership. From 25 February onwards, Capitalia will no longer be placing loans on the Mintos marketplace but will keep servicing loans until amortized.
In addition to Capitalia, other lending companies, such as Stik Credit, Finko Georgia, BB Finance, ITF Group, and Aasa, have also recently exited Mintos due to a variety of individual reasons.
Capitalia is anticipating becoming an alternative investment fund manager
Capitalia has announced its plans of creating two closed alternative investment funds through its daughter company “Capitalia Fund Management AIFP” as a way of attracting investors’ attention towards the Baltic states. The Financial and Capital Market Commission has already confirmed Capitalia’s application for becoming an alternative investment fund manager, therefore the lending company plans to carry out its plans in the near future.
Capitalia intends to offer two new concept investment funds to investors. The first fund will be a direct loan fund, mostly intended for institutional investors, which will supply short and medium-term financing for companies registered in the Baltic states. The second fund will be used for co-investing in promising Baltic start-ups together with the region's leading venture capital funds.
Capitalia anticipates for the funds to be up and running by the end of 2021.
Octopus Choice is shutting down
Octopus Choice, a peer-to-peer lending platform developed by Octopus Investments, temporarily paused transactions in March of 2020 because of the severe effects of the pandemic. As more investors were attempting to liquidate their investments, the platform experienced an increase in average returns on its loans, but a decrease in the demand for new investments, resulting in the decision to halt all transactions. A year has passed, however, Octopus has concluded that, by resuming operations on the platform, investors will not be provided with their expected amount of liquidity. Thus, Octopus Investments has decided to close the platform down.
House Crowd enters administration
House Crowd, a property peer-to-peer lending platform, has recently been facing financial complications. Attempting to resolve the situation, House Crowd has appointed administrators from Quantuma Advisory to oversee the platform by gradually closing up the loan portfolio and returning monies to lenders. Currently, House Crowd has approximately 3,700 active investors, which, according to Quantuma, should not expect to face any material impact from the ongoing administration process.
