Livonia Review 2024: a P2P Lending Platform with a Solid Background

I love to diversify my Peer-to-Peer lending investments on as many great platforms as possible, which is why I continuously review new platforms & share my experiences with those platforms on my site. In this article, I will review the Peer-to-Peer lending platform Livonia, which I added to my portfolio in 2024. Livonia is a platform was launched in 2023, but actually has a 30+ years track record via their parent company and loan originator, Zs Kazeri.

In the article, I will tell you what I think are the biggest strengths (and weaknesses) of the platform, how to start using it, and what you can expect from investing on the platform. Let's start!

What is Livonia?

As for all Peer-to-Peer lending platforms, Livonia is a financial platform that allows investors to invest in loans, along with other investors in order to get interests payments over time. Livonia is a relatively new platform, as it was launched in 2023. The company is incorporated in Latvia.

However, what really makes Livonia different from other platforms is that they are backed by its parent company called ZS Kazeri, which was funded over 30 years and has therefore a really long track record. I see more and more platforms like this that use P2P lending to attract more investors for a company that has a long track record, but this is the first time I see such a long one.

The parent company itself has great historical performances, with 0% default rate and over 30M Euros invested over the years.

They already have over 2000 investors, and they specialise in investing in forestry & renewable energy projects. As we'll see later in the review, they have two main investment products: business projects, and a product called Terra Livonia, which is more passive & automated.

What returns can I expect from investing on Livonia?

The returns you can expect on Livonia will of course depend on which notes you invest in. Currently, with the information from the business projects posted on their platform, you can expect between 9 and 16% of annual returns. If you invest in their completely automated product, Terra Livonia, you will currently get 9% of annual returns. On average, investors on the platform get 13.68% returns.

This is good as it is the average you can get on several similar platforms in the field, and I will of course verify that when I talking about how to get started on the platform.

Is it safe to invest on Livonia?

The question of the safety of the investors funds is central when investing on a Peer-to-Peer lending platform, as they will be managing all the money that you deposit on the platform and invest it in the loans. When reviewing a new platform before adding it to my portfolio, I look at three things: what the platforms offers in terms of guarantees, the company itself (and their team), and finally the source of the projects present on the platform.

Risks & guarantees on Livonia

On Livonia, there are two types of products that you can invest in - more classical business projects on which you can invest one by one, and Terra Livonia, which is a completely automated investment product with a fixed return.

Let's first focus on Terra Livonia, the fixed-interest product from Livonia. This is type of investment is fully automated just like a savings account, meaning you won't have to manage anything, just to put your money on it and it will be automatically start generating money.

Interest payments are between 9 and 12% per year, meaning it's much higher that your usual savings account. There are also no fees whatsoever, you can invest from just 10 Euros, and you can withdraw your money in just 2 days.

The other type of investment on the platform is more classic: business projects. As for all the investments on the Livonia platform, those projects are all about investing in forestry operations in Latvia.

Those project usually have interest rates between 9 and 16%, which is quite high compared to other platforms in the field. They also have quite low LTVs (Loan to Value), meaning there will be money available to pay back the investors in case something goes wrong in a project.

Note that projects also have an early exit option (not automated however), which is great if you don't want to be stuck in some investments.

Note that all projects on the platform are also secured by first rank mortgages or pledges like machinery, equipment, or personal guarantees.

The company & the team

As I mentioned earlier, the company is incorporated in Latvia. As for all platforms I add to my portfolio I checked if the company was officially registered in Latvia, and it is indeed.

It was also very easy to find information about their team, which is something I really like to see on such a platform.

As for all the platforms I invest on, I checked the profiles of the management team of the platform to see their experience in the field. Especially here, as they put the experience of their team as a strong argument for the performance and reliability of the platform.

And indeed, they do have a really strong team. Their CEO for example, Didzis Pogulis, has a really interesting profile has he is not only the CEO of the platform, but also the owner of the parent company of Livonia, that is actually a family company that he took over from his father. This makes Livonia a really unique platform.

So definitely a strong team of professionals, with a lot of experience in the P2P lending field at other platforms that I trust.

Loan originators

I always checked where the loans are coming from on a platform, as this is really important for the security of your investments. For example, they are responsible for paying the buyback guarantee that I mentioned earlier.

In the case of Livonia, all the loans are coming from one loan originator called Zs Kazeri, which is also the parent company behind Livonia with a 30+ years track record in the field of forestry in Latvia, and with 0% default rate on their projects.

It was also really easy to find more information about this loan originator on their site:

They offer loans with average yields around 12.5% and up to 16% in Latvia, which are all linked to forestry.

Overall, I like the fact that a large group is the loan originator on Livonia, and as I mentioned before I also like the family business aspect and the fact they have a long and excellent track record.

Getting started with Livonia

It is actually really easy to get started with Livonia and have your money start generating interests on the platform.

The first step is to open an account and get verified. This was done really quickly, and including the ID verification part it was all done in under 5 minutes.

Note that they also have some bonuses at the moment when you sign up - like additional 1% yield on all projects, instant 2% cashback on every investment, and loyalty bonuses.

Next, you will have to deposit funds in your account to start investing in loans and generate interests. This is also really to do with Livonia as you can do it via a bank transfer.

Once this is done, you can choose how you want to invest: automatically on Terra Livonia, or manually on projects. You can of course combine both types of investments.

You can easily see which projects are available:

You can then click on each project to see the details about this project, like the yield, maturity date, and a description of the project:

Note that for now there is no auto-invest function, but it mights be available in the future.

As for all the platforms I review, I also tried to withdraw money, and the money was back on my account in just 1 day.

My Results so far with Livonia

With the settings that I used on Livonia, I should get returns of around 13% annually. It is of course too early to talk about long-term yields on the platform, but I can say that so far everything went smoothly and I will definitely invest more on the platform in the future.

Should you invest on Livonia?

I can definitely say that I enjoy using Livonia as an investment platform. I really like the excellent track record of the parent company of the platform, as well as the excellent yields. They are a really transparent platform as well, and their interface is really easy to use. I also really appreciate the family aspect of the management of the company, with the parent company being active for over 30 years in the forestry field. I would have liked to see more features, as well as an auto-invest function, but those will most probably come in a close future. For all those reasons, I can really recommend having Livonia in any investment portfolio.

This article is not a substitute for professional financial advice. This article does is not a solicitation to offer financial advice, and only represents my own opinion and experience with the financial platforms mentioned in the article.