LendIt Europe conference in London was an incredible success this year. With 754 people attending over two days at the Hilton London Metropole early last week. It was the largest ever gathering in Europe for our industry. This year, the conference was split between platforms and investors, which was reflected in the audience, as 39% of those attending belonged to platforms, 28% to investors, 25% to service providers and 8% to media. With 45 countries represented, LendIt Europe had the most diverse audience among the three LendIt conferences.
Here are the highlights:
- Funding Circle obtained German SME loan marketplace Zencap, which is active in Germany, Netherlands and Spain, therefore expanding Funding Circle into continental Europe.
- Also, Finnish company Fellow Finance opens its doors to continental Europe by launching an English language website.
- Investly is considering expansion.
- Dutch insurance company Aegon will invest 150M Euro in German consumer loans on Auxmoney marketplace.
- Lendix is planning a possible expansion into Spain
- Crosslend opens its doors to Dutch investors and loans.
- Twino expands to Poland
- Afluenta expands into Peru and Mexico.
- Pret d’Union expands into Italy.
The summit portrayed that the UK market offers an environment that has no equal for P2P and other alternative finance companies.
- New regulation specifically tailored to P2P lending were welcomed by the regulatory body FCA.
- The UK government is highly supportive of the market with the new tax rules that allow, through new alternative ISAs, the balancing of earned interest and investing in P2P lending.
- The British business bank announced lending on SME platform loans and is open to consider more platforms.
