Irish peer to peer lender Linked Finance has topped € 10 million in lending to small businesses. Linked Finance expects to increase this number to € 20 million by the end of this year. The first p2p lender in Ireland has been running a series of ads in the Dublin Times to mark the milestone.
Our €10 Million ads in @IrishTimes today looking mighty fine! #BusinessLendingPeople #MoneyConf pic.twitter.com/EcatALIcdq
— LinkedFinance.com (@LinkedFinance) June 16, 2015
In the past two years, Linked Finance has helped fund over 300 companies across Ireland. According to a recent report in The Independent, companies receiving funding typically have an average turnover of €180,000 and fewer than 10 employees. The direct lender uses an auction process for investors to back a borrowing SME.
LinkedFinance released some interesting data on their borrowers. Manufacturing and Engineering was their top SME category with Retail in second place. But according to the platform the types of companies they fund changes frequently with the trend varying from month to month. Linked Finance allows anyone to invest in loans ranging from €5,000 to €50,000.
This past winter the peer to peer lender received a solid investment of €2.5m from Ireland-based Frontline Ventures. At the time of the capital injection, Linked Finance founder Peter O’Mahoney explained;
“We have a 3-year target to supporting 5,000 SMEs and in the process supporting 40,000 jobs.”
