Smava operates an online credit comparison platform that aggregates about 70 loan products ranging from €1,000 to €120,000 from over 20 banks and lending partners. Consumers select a loan on the platform and take it out directly; on average Smava borrowers pay roughly 35% less interest than the German national average. The company reported strong brokered loan volume growth, increasing about 35% from ~€2.0B in 2018 to ~€2.7B in 2019, with growth accelerating in Q1 2020. Founded in 2007 and based in Berlin, Smava has raised multiple funding rounds, most recently a €65M Series D over two years ago. Management says the new financing will be used to continue investments in digitalization and product innovations and to maintain growth through the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic. CEO and co-founder Alexander Artopé emphasized the package’s role in sustaining the company’s growth course despite the crisis. Smava operates an online marketplace/portal that matches consumers to loan offers using big-data credit analytics and algorithms, typically presenting about 70 offers drawn from roughly 25 banks and private lenders. The company began in 2007 as a peer-to-peer lending platform but shifted to include banks as the primary funding source; P2P now represents less than five percent of loans. Smava says its matching and automation cut average wait times from 10 days to 10 minutes and deliver average savings of about €2,000 for borrowers, while approval rates on the platform rise to roughly 80–85 percent versus about 50 percent through banks directly. Operational scale cited in the article includes about 300,000 customers, €1.2 billion in loans transacted this year and about €3 billion over the company’s lifetime. Smava has been profitable for the last year and takes around four percent from its loans, which the article estimates would imply roughly €48 million in revenues from those products. The company plans to expand beyond Germany across Europe and pursue partnerships with e-commerce platforms (for example, powering financing for eBay’s car portal in Germany). smava operates an online lending marketplace that offers bank-branded and funded third-party loans as well as peer-to-peer loans ranging from €1,000 to €120,000. The company is led by CEO and co-founder Alexander Artopé and is based in Berlin, Germany. smava has originated more than $1.75 billion in loans through its platform and employs over 180 people. The firm plans to use the new capital to expand its customer base, hire additional talent and continue enhancing its scoring technology. The product mix includes both bank-funded products and loans funded by private individuals, positioning smava across multiple lending channels. The company emphasizes technology-driven credit scoring as a core part of its offering. Smava is a German peer-to-peer lending platform that matches investors with borrowers for online loans. The company uses automated algorithms and scoring technology to vet and approve loan candidates, enabling lower interest rates for users. Smava reports it has loaned out $600 million through its platform and that loan originations grew by 100% in the last year. The fresh capital is intended to accelerate business growth, advance its scoring technology, hire talent, and further fuel expansion. Management says the aim is to offer fully automated loans to borrowers at the best rates in the near future. Smava competes with other online lenders such as Auxmoney, Zopa and Lending Club. Smava is a Berlin-based social lending marketplace operating a Zopa-style peer lending platform. It generates revenue by collecting a one-time 1% fee on funded loans from borrowers; lenders use the service cost-free. The company has originated roughly €4 million in loans to date. Smava closed a second financing round of €4 million with venture capital firms Earlybird and Hamburg-based Neuhaus Partners. Earlybird was an investor in the first round and Neuhaus Partners joined in this second round. The article notes that social lending marketplaces have proven viable outside the UK and US and suggests significant potential for the model in Germany, where traditional credit is less prevalent and social support is culturally ingrained.

Total raised

$183M

Funding rounds

6

Latest round

Debt Financing

Latest activity

May 2020