This week’s startup is Lenndy, a peer-to-peer lending marketplace. We reached out to Lenndy and asked some question about their startup, how founders come up with this idea.

So what is Lenndy?

Lenndy is a P2P lending marketplace where investors around the world are able to invest in pre-funded business loans issued by multiple loan originators. Lenndy focuses on providing sufficient supply of short-term Eastern European business loans for investors.

What are your competitors and competitive advantages?

There are a few companies that use similar lending marketplace business model, however, majority of the platforms are focused on consumer loans. On the other hand, Lenndy offers only business loans that usually more secure due to pledged collateral, multiple personal guarantees, etc.

(photo by Lenndy)

What were the reasons behind coming up with this idea and launching this product?

We realise that sharing economy is gaining momentum in financial services area. We created Lenndy in order to support entrepreneurship, contribute to growing small and medium businesses and give an opportunity for investors to join us in a way. We have created a tool for ordinary individuals to put their savings to good use and earn great return starting from 100 EUR investment.

When exactly did you launch, what were the main challenges before launching?

Lenndy was officially launched on 9th September, 2016. We have taken just under a year to bring the team together and prepare technical solutions for our users.

What are main challenges while working on this product and how are you overcoming them?

We interact with thousands of investors, 3 current loans originators and potential loan originators on a daily basis. We strive to ensure the quality of the listed loans, improve the speed of our platform and add additional functionalities to improve experience for our clients.

How are you funded? Do you seek extra funding?

We received seed funding from an angel investor. Lenndy revenue is currently sufficient to cover all fixed and variable expenses. However, we have ambitious plans for the future and additional funding would be required in order to scale.

Please introduce your founders, your core team and your broader team

Lenndy was started in late 2015 by 3 co-founders – Donatas Šatkaukas, Arturas Stukalo ir Tadas Krivickas. All co-founders brought different competencies to the table required to launch a successful investment platform. Currently, Lenndy employs 12 employees, where 6 of the work on the technical side of the platform. Our whole team can be found at www.lenndy.com.

(Lenndy co-founders, photo by Lenndy)

How has business been so far? Could you share some numbers to illustrate this?

We have received a lot of interest from investors in Lithuania and abroad. We have over 2700 registered investors that funded more than 6.5 mln. EUR of loans. More than 1200 loans were funded on our platform and we are extremely happy that we haven’t yet had a defaulted loan.

What’s next? What are your future plans, ambitions?

Our main goal is to keep the high quality of the loans and introduce new technical functionalities (auto-invest, SEPA payments etc.) and bring in new loan originators from neighbour countries (Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Czech Republic, etc.). We do not measure success by our size. We believe that success is measures by reducing losses and ensuring the supply of secure business loans.

Thank you so much for your answers, good luck!