Germany’s leading lending marketplace auxmoney reports continued strong growth. Loan volume increased from €39.3 million in the first half of last year to €79.5 million in the first half of 2016 ‒ an increase of more than 100%.
Founded in 2007, by Raffael Johnen, Philip Kamp and Philipp Kriependorf, auxmoney is Germany’s largest crowdfunding platform and Continental Europe’s second largest P2P lender after French Younited Credit – with whom it is now competing neck and neck. According to research institute GfK, auxmoney is also the most famous FinTech firm in Germany, which does not come as a surprise given its 1.5 million registered members.
In 2015, auxmoney’s growth was fueled by a spectacular commitment by Dutch insurance company Aegon, as an Institutional Investor, to lend €150 million through the platform. As for its own capital needs, auxmoney is backed by top venture capital firms such as Seven Ventures, Index Ventures, Union Square, Foundation Capital and Partech.
Since its beginnings, auxmoney has originated €268 million worth of loans, out of which nearly two thirds were originated in the past 18 months alone. Both the number and the size of loans are increasing: the number of loans originated increased by 69% from 6,337 in the first half of 2015 to 10,688 loans in the first half of 2016; at the same time the average loan size increased from €6,196 to €7,439, a 20% increase.
Raffael Johnen, auxmoney’s co-founder and CEO is a firm believer not only in the potential of his company, but also in the opportunities presented by the crowdfunding sector and by FinTech at large in the face of market turbulences such as caused by the Brexit.
Here is what he said when commenting his company’s results:
“Our doubling in size demonstrates the benefits of peer-to-peer lending. It also sends a strong signal to the entire financial sector and demonstrates that FinTechs can change the name of the game.
To investors, auxmoney brings an average return of 5.5%, which is far above the interest rate offered by traditional saving account and other interest-bearing investments available to German retail investors. In addition, P2P lending investments are completely independent from the fluctuations of the stock market.
To borrowers, including the self-employed, employees on probation and students whose loan applications are usually flatly rejected by banks, auxmoney gives a quick and easy access to credit.
The benefits of our model point to the enormous growth potential that lies ahead of us. Established banks such as Commerzbank are now starting lending marketplaces in order to seize the opportunity. Far from worrying us, this only comforts us in our approach. We’re pleased to see that many firms try to walk in our footsteps, putting the customer at the center in order to transform the lending sector.”
Therese Torris, PhD, is an entrepreneur and consultant in eFinance and eCommerce based in Paris. She has covered crowdfunding and P2P lending since the early days when Zopa was created in the United Kingdom. She was a director of research and consulting at Gartner Group Europe, Senior VP at Forrester Research and Content VP at Twenga. She publishes a French personal finance blog, Le Blog Finance Pratique.
