Best European P2P Lending Platforms in 2024
Peer-to-Peer lending is one of my favourite ways to invest money, especially because it can be completely automated and the returns are great. I am often asked what are my favorite platforms to invest in, which is why I decided to write this article in which I'll tell you what are my current favourite Peer-to-Peer lending platforms.
You will notice that all of those platforms are located in Europe. Indeed, as a European resident, I can't, for example, invest in platforms in the US, and I am of course only recommending platforms I am using myself. However, most of those platforms accept investors from outside of Europe.
Without further due, here is the list of all the platforms that I currently consider being the best Peer-to-Peer lending platforms in Europe.
The Best Peer-to-Peer Lending Platforms in Europe
In the rest the article, I will tell you about each of those platforms in details.
How to choose a good Peer-to-Peer Lending Platform?
Before telling you about each platform in more details, I wanted to tell you about how I choose the platforms that I put in my portfolio and of course in this article. There are two sets of criteria: objective, and subjective.
To choose a platform therefore, I first look at objective criteria, such as the expected yield of the platform, whether the platform has a buyback guarantee, and whether there is an auto-invest function. I also check if the platform has an investment license or has applied for such a license, which is a very important criterion.
After making a first selection with these objective criteria, I also use more subjective criteria to select my platforms, such as my own experience with the platform. I will use this opportunity to state that I invest personally on each of the platforms present in this article. The first subjective criterion on which I base myself for the selection is the effective yield of the platforms, which is very often different from the advertised yield. For that, I use TrackInvest, a software that I developed and which allows to import the transactions from the platforms before obtaining the real return. I then compare it to the yield announced by the platforms.
Here are the details on each of the platforms I want to tell you about in this article:
Hive5
I wanted to start this article with hive5 - which is a relatively recent platform in the field, but has several advantages that makes it my favourite platform at the moment. They have excellent yields (above 13%, and up to 14.5% at the moment) which are the highest on the market, and put their focus on having full transparency on the platform.
The platform is also run by a team of highly-experience professionals, and I am regularly talking with them about the platform & how they can do better, which I really appreciate. They also have one the best TrustPilot score I've seen for such platforms (4.7 at the time of writing this article), meaning investors are really happy with the platform.
Even if they are quite new compared to other platforms of this article, they are growing rapidly and expanding in Europe and worldwide, offering opportunities for diversification to investors for more loan originators being added regularly.
Combine that with a great user experience and a strong auto-invest function, and you have another platform that's worth adding to any investment portfolio.
Mintos
The second platform that I wanted to mention in this article is Mintos. Mintos is currently the largest Peer-to-Peer lending platform in Europe, and offer a huge amount of loans to invest in. This makes it a really interesting platform to invest in, as it gives you exposure to several countries and several kinds of loans in each country. That's instant diversification on a single platform. The platform also offers solid returns to investors, around 12%.
Mintos is also a regulated platform like several other platforms of this article, meaning that they have to follow very strict rules to guarantee the safety of investors money. They also have their loans grouped into financial instruments called Notes, which are basically several individual loans packaged together. This all means more safety for the investors, as well as more stable income coming from the platform.
On top of that, the interface is really easy to use, and they also have a great portfolio manager so you can set everything once and then just let it invest for you. A large portion of their loans actually also come with a buyback guarantee, meaning that even if somebody stopped paying back a loan you will still get your money back.
As for all platforms in this article, I've been investing personally on Mintos (since 2015). Even after the events of the COVID-19 crisis, during which some of the loan originators on the platform had some issues to pay back money to Mintos, I am still having strong returns on Mintos, currently at 11.43%. They also communicated very well during the crisis, with emails about each loan originators & how the money will be recovered.
For all of those reasons, I definitely recommend Mintos as the best European Peer-to-Peer lending platform. It's the ideal platform to start an investment portfolio or to add to an already existing portfolio.
PeerBerry
I also wanted to mention PeerBerry, which is a solid Peer-to-Peer lending platform in which I started to invest in back in 2018. They also offer everything you need from a good Peer-to-Peer lending platform: buyback guarantee on most loans, a great diversity of loan originators & loan types, and an auto-invest function that is really easy to setup.
Plus, they offer good interest rates as well (they advertise an average return of 11.57%), and I only got solid results from the platform since I started investing. Currently, my yield on the platform is at 11.32% after several years on investing on the platform.
They also have a great team that is always there to answer any questions. Therefore, I also recommend adding PeerBerry to your Peer-to-Peer lending portfolio in order to diversify your investments.
Viainvest
The third platform I will mention here is Viainvest. As for other platforms in this review, Viainvest proposes a buyback guarantee on most of the loans present on the platform, which is something very nice to have as an investor. Their auto-invest function also works great, and is very easy to setup. Viainvest also has a very clear and easy to use interface, and excellent customer support that solved some issue that I had in a matter of minutes.
As for some other platforms of this article, they actually have an investment brokerage firm (IBF) license, that they obtained in 2021. This is definitely a great signal for investors, as it means they are a very transparent company and always willing to innovate to be more trustworthy for investors.
I've also been investing personally on Viainvest since 2018, and never had any issues with the platform. My current yield on the platform is at 11.83%, which is very close to what is announced by the platform.
Similar to the first two platforms, I had solid results since the beginning on Viainvest, and therefore I really recommend having this platform in your portfolio.
Debitum
I also wanted to mention in this article the platform Debitum. Debitum is a more recent platform but which has all the qualities of the platforms present in this article - such as buyback guarantee on loans, as well as an auto-invest function. The platform also recently got an investment license, which is also a very good thing.
Debitum is also very different from other platforms of this article, as they solely offer commercial loans on their platforms, and not loans made to individuals. They offer this via ABS, which are pools of commercial loans grouped into one single asset. This provides more stability in the returns given by the platform, as well as a lower risk as commercial loans have less defaults than loans to individuals.
They also have a very innovative interface that is really easy to use, and opening an account on the platform was really easy.
As for all the platforms in this article, I personally invest in Debitum. After more than 2 years on the platform, I have always had solid returns and my current yield is around 10%, which is above the average yield announced by the platform at 8%.
Income Marketplace
I could not write this article without including Income Marketplace in it. This is a relatively recent platform, having been created in early 2021. I have a bit of a special story to tell with this platform - as I had a few video calls with their team before they even launched, to discuss what would be great to have in the platform from an investors point of view.
I really liked this approach, and it indeed allowed them to create a robust platform that has strong yields (around 12% on average), with a strong emphasis on the safety of the investors funds. They for example have a buyback guarantee on all loans, a complete transparency on their loan originators, and also a very easy to use auto-invest function.
For all those reasons, I can say that Income Marketplace is really currently one of the top Peer-to-Peer lending platform in Europe.
Profitus
Profitus is a different type of platform that the one I mentioned so far in this article, as they are offering loans that are backed by property. They basically list projects from investors that are looking for financing, and match those with investors that want to generate interests over time.
They apply a very strict selection process to put projects on the platform - and so far have an excellent track record. The nice thing is that all projects are secured by the real estate attached to the project in the form of a first rank mortgage, meaning a good safety net for investors in case something would go wrong with the project.
Add to that attractive yields and an auto-invest function to completely automate your investments on the platform - and you have a platform worth considering in any investment portfolio.
LANDE
LANDE is another platform that is really different from all the platforms I have mentioned so far. Indeed, they are a platform focused on investing the European agricultural sector. This means that all projects present on the platform are backed by assets related to the agricultural field, like grain or real estate for example.
For investors on the platform, this means two things: attractive yields, and low LTVs (Loan to Value ratios). You can indeed get yields of up to 14% on the platform, placing it in the top range of all the platforms I mentioned in this article. You will also get loans with a very low LTV, going as low as 25% whereas it's usually more around 70% on similar platforms. This means additional safety for your funds as even if something goes wrong with the loan, there is enough money in the collateral to easily give back money to investors.
This is why I really like this quite different platform and really recommend LANDE as part of any investment portfolio.
Swaper
Swaper is a platform that was funded back in 2019, and quickly established itself as one of the main player in the field of Peer-to-Peer lending in Europe. They really put their focus on making it easy for investors to generate interests on their platform.
Indeed, they have a fixed interest rate on all loans of 14% - meaning no need to filter out loans based on this criteria, or risk having an under-performing portfolio. They also have an auto-invest strategy called easy investing, meaning you can start generating interest on the platform in no time.
Especially for people that are just starting out in the field of Peer-to-Peer lending investments, Swaper is definitely a platform that I would recommend.
Robocash
Like some other platforms of this article, Robocash is also a platform that is operating within a larger financial group, called the Robocash Group that has been operating since 2013. This means an additional layer of safety for investors on this platform, as the company is backed by a group with a good track record, compared to platforms that are more recent and just on their own.
They also have a strong focus on automation with an auto-invest function that is really easy to use, and strong yields up to 13%.
Overall, they are definitely are one of the strong players in the field of Peer-to-Peer lending in Europe, and another platform worth adding in an investment portfolio.
Decamel
I wanted to finish this article by talking about Decamel - a relatively new platform in the field of crowdlending. Decamel is a crowdlending platform that offers a wide range of investment opportunities including real estate projects, equity crowdfunding in companies and startups, as well as invoice financing and business loans.
The platform was founded in 2021 and started offering investments in 2023. Decamel offers returns are between 8 and 14%, with up to 18% yields on some projects. The company has a strict KYC process and all the projects on the platform come with collateral and/or guarantees.
The CEO of the company, Dmitri Pavlov, has a strong experience in the field, having been the head of international lending at a bank for over 13 years.
Overall, Decamel is a safe and reliable platform to invest in, and getting started with the platform is easy and user-friendly. Definitely a platform on which I will invest more in the future.
To Sum Up
Those platforms are really my favourite, and as you can see in the details of my portfolio I currently have investments in all of them.
People often ask me which is the number one platform that they should invest in. It's difficult to really give an answer as I recommend diversification in several platforms, but I systematically hive5 as my favourite platform to get started in Peer-to-Peer lending investment. The platform is easy to use, they are fully transparent, have the highest returns on the market, and also they are always diversifying into more and more countries & loan originators. So definitely my number one pick when it comes to Peer-to-Peer lending.