LEND acquires PostFinance’s Lendico

Private individuals can use the crowdlending platform LEND to take out car, real estate or student loans or to refinance existing loans, while entrepreneurs can ask to get SME loans financed. LEND’s investors are mainly family offices or private individuals but also an increasing number of institutional investors. Especially the financing of SME is considered a lucrative market.

Today, the Zurich-based fintech announced that it acquired 100 percent of the PostFinance SME credit marketplace Lendico. By acquiring the SME credit marketplace, LEND wants to start the consolidation of the Swiss crowdlending market. «The last few years have shown that crowdlending is a genuine alternative to traditional bank loans. It is now time for strong businesses to emerge and for us to scale services appropriately», explains Michel Lalive, cofounder of LEND.

PostFinance will in turn acquire a stake in LEND with the aim to focus even more on the crowdlending market. «We recognized the trend towards platform-based banking and crowdlending early on and are convinced of its potential. To ensure we can bring crowdfunding to the mass market, the different players have to join forces and pool their strengths. In this regard, LEND and PostFinance complement each other perfectly», says Hansruedi König, CEO of PostFinance.

The takeover takes place on 28 May. The integration will be completed a few weeks later. The parties have agreed to maintain confidentiality over the purchase price and the ownership structure.

(Press Release/ SOK)
(Picture: Pixabay)