The partners of 123Venture have launched Lendix, a crowdfunding platform dedicated to SMEs which lets institutional and private investors can lend directly to businesses at rates based on the quality of the borrower.
Lend has raised EUR7 million in a funding round led by Partech Ventures, Weber Investissements and 123Venture’s management team, including founder Olivier Goy who is chairman of this new business.
123Venture is a French private equity asset management firm dedicated to retail investors with more than 60,000 private clients and EUR1.2bn of assets under management.
“Our driver for Lendix is similar to the one we had for 123Venture – making new saving solutions more accessible, partnering with the same shareholders and pursuing the same strong ambition, thus ensuring more money is invested each year in SMEs,” says Goy.
“We believe Olivier Goy and his partners have developed the skills which are vital to success in this industry: a proven capacity to source and analyse SMEs, expertise in raising capital and superb knowledge of regulatory constraints,” adds Philippe Collombel, managing partner of Partech Ventures.
Lendix aims to finance 400 to 500 SMEs in its first year, offering loans between EUR15,000 and EUR300,000 at fixed rates and with maturities of 18 to 48 months. Established businesses looking to borrow will be graded by Lendix’s experienced team of analysts. The minimum investment for private individuals can be as small as EUR100.
“Our idea is to quickly and competitively service businesses that banks cannot deal with promptly and nimbly. It is not to finance businesses that are not able to support borrowing,” says Goy.
According to the credit quality of the borrower and the loan maturity, borrowing rates will range from four to eight per cent annually.
Lendix has appointed Philippe Citerne, former deputy CEO of Société Générale, to its Supervisory Board.
