In The Press

Daily Mail Online, 16th October 2015
The Daily Mail Online featured a Crowdstacker survey on the cost of financial apathy.

Read the full article in the Daily Mail Online

Bridgingandcommercial.co.uk, 13th October 2015
The peer-to-peer lending platform says investors will receive 5.67% annual interest over a term of 18 months.

The loan requires a minimum investment of £1,000 and is available to investors before 6th November at 5.67% - but after that the interest rate will be lowered to 5.43% - and the offer will close on 11th December.

Amicus went through several stages of quantitative and qualitative assessment undertaken by Crowdstacker after it ruled out more than 30 other potential firms because they did not meet its strict lending criteria.

Karteek Patel, CEO of Crowdstacker, said the due diligence process starts where other platforms stop and follows a highly selective approach to the borrowers it accepts on its platform.

“Most of our customers are looking to diversify their investments, but they are also quite cautious and only want to lend to financially solid businesses,” said Karteek.

“Amicus has a top level management team, exposure to a very strong market and has only lost 0.15% of capital on its loans over 6 years.  

Read the full article at www.bridgingandcommercial.co.uk

Wealth Adviser, 10th August 2015
A study from Amicus Finance finds that 73 per cent of institutional investors are predicting a growing institutional appetite for investing in the alternative finance market over the next two years. 

Institutional investors believe that the sector will continue to offer attractive risk-adjusted returns. The research among European institutional investors reveals that they expect the alternative lending sector to grow by a quarter over the next 24 months, driven by the demand for expansion finance by SMEs.    Read more at Wealth Adviser

Amicus Finance has just launched a new loan product on the Crowdstacker peer to peer (p2p) platform offering 5.43% (increasing to 5.67% with their early bird offer).

2nd October 2015
Property refurbishment experts follow successful first raise by launching second round on the Crowdstacker P2P platform.

6th October 2015 – P2P lending platform, Crowdstacker, is set to run a second round raise for Quanta Group, offering the same 6.8% rate of return which enticed lenders to invest over £700k at the start of this summer.

The opportunity has been reopened for a number of reasons including in response to requests from existing investors to increase their investments.  It is looking to secure further funding to be used to purchase run-down UK properties and refurbish them for immediate resale.   

Finance raised from the first round has already been successfully deployed, with the funds being used to buy properties that have now been valued for resale at more than 10% higher than the purchase price. 

Just like the first raise, this second opportunity will offer a 6.8% return over three years with interest paid in quarterly instalments. 

This is believed to currently be a one-of-a-kind P2P lending opportunity that focuses on trading property. It is not raising money for buy-to-let property investments - a sector currently subject to a great deal of uncertainty after the recent proposed tax changes in the Chancellor’s post-election budget.

John Pybus, an investor in the initial raise, explains why he was inspired to put his money in:  

“The beauty of this opportunity to lend money to a property refurbishment business is that you get to invest your money for an excellent rate of return, but Quanta does the hard work.  They use their expertise to spot the best properties and refurbish them.

“It’s not like stocks and shares, which are harder to understand.  You can see property, and you can see where the value has been added when it has been repaired and updated.  The potential to make money is more obvious.”
 
As with all P2P lending opportunities featured on Crowdstacker’s platform, Quanta Group underwent a comprehensive due diligence process prior to being accepted.  This is a central point of difference from some other platforms which may only undertake basic credit checks of businesses before enabling UK investors to lend them money.

Karteek Patel, CEO of Crowdstacker, explains:  “Many of the investors in the first round raise for Quanta told us how important it was to know we had already done a lot of the background homework for them.  We do this so we know we are offering investors the chance to lend to a financially solid and capable business.

“This has always been at the heart of what we wanted to achieve with Crowdstacker.  We combine the innovation offered by P2P with the traditional, but absolutely imperative, due diligence practices one would expect from a ‘big 4’ accountancy firm.

“Unlike start-ups and micro-businesses, there are many mid-sized businesses in this country which have strong trading track records, solid management teams, and excellent prospects in their respective markets.  This can make them good opportunities for investors who want to grow their money by lending it to these businesses in return for a bond-beating rate of interest.

“Quanta buys, does up and sells properties for profit – a way of making money which British people are familiar with and understand well.  We’ve decided to re-issue the opportunity to lend to them because of the strength of their offer.”

Quanta is an easy-to-understand investment powered by Crowdstacker offering a return of 6.8% per annum with regular quarterly interest payments.

As with the first round raise, money lent to Quanta Group will be secured in a number of ways including security over the portfolio of properties purchased, currently un-invested cash segregated in a separate bank account, and overseen by an independent FCA regulated administrator. Quanta Group cannot drawdown any profits itself before first ensuring that there is always enough capital to repay lenders their original investments.