Lendahand Launches Second Funding Round on Symbid

Hoping to continue the expansion of its company, Dutch crowdfunding platform, Lendahand, recently launched a second campaign on Symbid.

Lendahand, which was founded by Peter Heijen, Koen The, and Peter Stolze, provides funds to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in emerging economies. These include countries such as Philippines, Ghana, Colombia, and Mongolia.

“Lending to SMEs in developing countries leads to attractive financial returns, but above all it generates a huge social impact. In developed countries SMEs are the main drivers of economic growth and employment, but in less developed regions SMEs do not appear as often. This is not because the people there are less entrepreneurial or forward-thinking. It’s because there is a lack of financing needed to grow the business. Start-ups and micro-businesses have access to micro-finance and larger companies have access to bank loans, but SMEs find it hard to obtain funding and are therefore not yet the engines of growth and employment that these countries need. They are known as the ‘missing middle’.”

Lendahand’s achievements are:

• Via the platform 850 crowdfunders have lent to circa 400 small & medium businesses in the Philippines, Ghana, and Colombia. This led to the creation of 700 jobs.
• In 2014, €850,000 was lent via the platform, while this is already close to €2 million for this year. In 2015, it took six days for a loan with an average size to get fully funded. Compare this with 55 days in 2013 (the year the platform went live for public)
• Accrued revenues exceed €50,000 year to date.
• The media has picked us up as we have been mentioned and profiled on, amongst others: BNR, Financieel Dagblad, De Financiële Telegraaf, Bloomberg TV, OneWorld, Libelle, and Consumentengids
• The platform has secured investment from a number of angel investors including successful entrepreneurs, financial professionals and social investors
• The subsidy: the platform was the only for-profit business that was granted the SBOS (subsidy for citizenship and development aid), all the others were non-profits

The platform previously launched a funding initiative through Symbid last year and since then has grown rapidly:

“After raising €60,000 from 48 investors last year, our platform has experienced exponential growth. Our continuously growing lender base (850+) has lent close to €3 million to circa 400 small businesses in developing countries, creating 700 jobs. More than half of that has been lent in just the last 6 months.”

Funds from this campaign will go towards the following:

• Ongoing operations: €150,000
• Securing AFM license: €100,000 (most of this is needed as a reserve required by the regulator)
• First steps of international roll-out: €50,000
• Hiring full-time Chief Digital Officer: €50,000

Since its launch, Lendahand’s new campaign has successfully secured over €450,000.