LendSecured/Lande: review of a P2P platform focused on agricultural lending

P2P platforms that offer collateralised lending mostly operate in the real-estate sector. The purpose of their business is often to finance development projects or renovations through the investor community. Latvia’s LendSecured, however, is going its own way, offering broader diversification for investor P2P portfolios in the form of non-traditional agricultural loans.

For the record, we only review platforms on which the reviewer is active. You can see how our portfolio is doing on a quarterly basis in our P2Preports.

Before the review itself, let me here thank Cupi, who put the review below together. As you know, I’m active on quite a few platforms myself and just maintaining them and keeping track of other developments is time consuming. Therefore, I do not rush into further registrations. Nevertheless, at the same time we would like to keep bringing new possibilities and expanding horizons to the readers on our website. That’s why I’m glad that we have managed to agree on cooperation with Cupi, who is also active on P2Pforum. It brings a look at other platforms and from a different perspective. You can read what Cupi decided to tell us about himself and his experience in P2P in the short medallion below his article. Zbynhu

Basic information about the platform

The platform is backed by management with more than a decade of experience in the industry. LendSecured, launched in mid-2020, belongs to the Secured Finance MGMT group, which includes other brands such as Lande (media promotion, agricultural loan offer) and mortgage companies Latvias Hipoteka and Atrahipoteka. The group has also received a debt recovery licence. The platform is expected to be renamed Lande in the near future, as it will be merged with the above-mentioned brand. In 2021, the platform applied for a crowdfunding ECSP license (European Regulation on European Crowdfunding Service Providers) in Latvia. However, due to delays from the regulator, the license is not expected to be obtained until later this year.

More than 1,100 investors are already registered on the platform, with more than 100 new registrations per month in the last few months. Hand in hand with this and the need to meet investor demand, more and more loans are added to the platform and the share of loans with a higher invested volume is also growing. To give you an idea, a year ago, a EUR 20,000 project was huge and took 10-14 days to be funded by investors. Today, even EUR 50,000 loans are being seen and the speed of funding has increased significantly. To date, EUR 2.1m has been funded on the platform with a current rate of EUR 250-300k per month.

Investing on the platform

The platform has chosen an area for its business that is heavily underfunded despite EU subsidies – agriculture. Investors have the opportunity to invest in loans mainly to small (family) and medium-sized agricultural enterprises in Latvia. The money is mostly used to buy agricultural equipment, new land or fertilisers. The loans are secured by collateral in the form of land/property, heavy machinery or expected future harvests. For the latter type, it is necessary to mention the existence of insurance against bad weather and other events leading to crop loss.

The platform plans to expand to other EU countries in the near future, starting with the Baltics.

The maturity of the loans offered ranges from 6-24 months with interest rates of 10-11% and an average LTV of 40%. It is the low LTV (Loan To Value) and relatively short-term seasonal loans (6-8 months) that make them an attractive alternative to other platforms for investors. You can also increase your interest rate on selected opportunities with a cashback bonus of 0.5% to 2% on a higher single investment or by using a referral link for new investors.

LendSecured – bonus for new investors

The LendSecured portal is currently offering new investors +1% cashback on investments made on the primary market within 90 days of registration.

By registering through the link below, you will also support this project.

Seasonal loans typically appear in the spring, then mature in the fall after the harvest and sale of the product grown. The minimum amount for investment is EUR 50. The loans are mostly repaid in bullet form, where interest is paid monthly and the principal only at the end of the investment. At a time when a large number of P2P platforms are increasing interest rates due to investor outflows, LendSecured has so far kept the interest rates at the same level. The CEO of LendSecured commented in the chat app Telegram that despite the crisis in Ukraine, the platform is experiencing growth, the month of March is expected to be a record month in terms of new registrations. Moreover, the interest rates offered are tied to the interest rates charged to borrowers – ranging from 11-16%.

The description of the loans is relatively brief, containing basic information about the borrower, the purpose of the loan, the expected type of income from which the loan will be repaid, the address and type of collateral with its estimated value. Suggestions that the borrower’s financial indicators should also be disclosed have unfortunately not yet been taken up.

Auto invest was recently introduced on the platform, unfortunately in probably the most limited version I’ve seen on P2P platforms so far. With an investment between 50 EUR and 250 EUR, there is no way how to set it up, it will just invest in all loans. From EUR 250 onwards you can set the minimum interest rate, LTV and loan term.

Portfolio statistics after 1 year and subjective experience

There is a delay between the investment and the start of interest accrual due to the funding period of the loan and the subsequent settlement of the transfer of money to the borrower. For such a young platform, we are talking about 1-2 weeks. For those who want to earn interest more efficiently, it is worth using the secondary market, which is free of charge (for both buyer and seller) and in which the buyer pays no extra premium (entering a discount/premium is not possible). There are loans from ordinary investors, but also larger sums from institutional, so-called anchor investors. The latter ensure that each loan offered is 100% funded, with the anchor investor subsequently offering its stake for sale on the secondary market. The closest interest paid is split between the seller and the buyer in the secondary market, depending on the number of days the investment is held.

I have been on the platform for almost a year, and in that time I have made 55 investments, 16 of which have already been successfully repaid. These were seasonal short term loans that ended during the autumn/winter. Of the remaining 39 investments, I have 11 in delay. Unfortunately, LendSecured cannot combine several separate investments into the same loan. As a result, we see more loans in default than there are actual projects in default. In my case, there are only 2 projects more than 60 days late (not 5), 1 project 31-60 days late and 2 projects 5-30 days late. The average appreciation of my portfolio over the last year is approximately 10%.

An investor who has invested in all projects to date is contributing to the LendSecured Telegram. He has the best overview of the status of all loans. Out of 154 projects, 48 have been repaid, 89 are current, 8 loans are 5-30 days late, 5 loans are between 31-60 days late and only 4 loans are more than 60 days late.

The overview of existing investments is probably the biggest hitch in the platform, at least in terms of clarity. The loan designation is just a generated ID, multiple investments in the same loan are displayed separately, and far apart, so you have absolutely no idea how many loans you’ve actually invested in. In general, the platform is easy to navigate, but this is more a consequence of the modest amount of features across the platform. Occasionally inaccurate loan information will appear, probably due to inattention. Unfortunately, it gives an amateurish impression.

In the platform’s defense, however, I must remind you that it is a relatively young platform (it was only founded in 2020) that is gradually evolving and improving. LendSecured’s programmers don’t slack off, and in addition to the aforementioned auto invest, they feature a nice detail to make things easier, such as a coin icon on the secondary market for loans I’m already invested in, or an exclamation mark icon there for loans in delay. I also appreciate the account statement that you can have generated for any time interval. Here you can see all the information such as net profit, account balance at the beginning and end of the selected period, principal repaid, etc.

Investment safety at LendSecured

For P2P platforms with secured loans, investors are interested in how the management is able to recover the principal and interest in case of default. Of course, there is no buyback guarantee on these platforms, as you are lending directly to the borrower (without a lending company) and the platform is only an intermediary in this case.

However, the low LTV guarantees a relatively safe investment. No defaults have occurred on the platform so far (no wonder, the platform is young), although some are probably coming (2 loans in my portfolio). Historically, the group has had about 5% defaulted loans during its 10 years of existence, of which 100% of the time the funds have been recovered with interest. This is an important statistic and excellent result that adds to the credibility of the entire platform. However, I do have a criticism of the communication about defaulted loans, as the information is often inaccurate, not updated or only appears when investors ask questions. Fortunately, the platform has already partially improved the way it communicates delayed loans and hopefully will continue this trend.

From a safety point of view, it is also important that the money sent to LendSecured sits in your personal segregated bank account with BNP Paribas. This account is automatically set up for each investor and as an investor you don’t have to worry about anything. The LemonWay payment system is used for transactions, however, due to issues with this provider, the platform is looking to agree a different solution for the future. Payments sometimes take several days to reach their destination and this has caused a huge buzz among the investor community. It is a great positive that the management of the platform listens to the complaints and suggestions of the investors themselves.

Platform communication

And while I’m on the subject of communication, management is very active on Telegram (https://t.me/LendSecured). Here you can learn first-hand about new projects on the platform, ask questions to the management or just discuss platform issues with other investors. At the same time, every quarter you can watch a Q&A video on the LendSecured YouTube channel, where the platform’s CEO Nikita Goncars summarizes the events that have happened on the platform, plans for the future, or answers questions from investors.

Review summary – the pros and cons of LendSecured

Pros

• Diversification into the new area of P2P loans secured by collateral.
• Low LTV, stable interest rate of 11%, short-term loans offered, secondary market with no premium.
• ECSP license + segregated bank account = higher security for investors.
• Communication, transparency.
• Quality management, history of 100% recoveries on defaulted loans.

Cons

• A young platform without a longer history.
• Clarity of some screens, tables, errors in loan descriptions.
• Room for better communication regarding delayed loans.
• Very poor autoinvest setup options.

Conclusion

I signed up for the platform in the spring of 2021 when it was still in its infancy. In 1 year, the platform has moved forward in leaps and bounds and is attracting more and more investors. Although LendSecured still suffers from some childhood diseases and some incompletions are sometimes embarrassing, the platform openly listens to investors and gradually innovates the interface. The team behind the curtain has been successfully pursuing this business for about 10 years, with great results. As a bonus, LendSecured offers diversification into a new sector in the P2P world, which I consider an important element in this venture segment.

You can visit LendSecured here.

As usual, we’d be happy to receive feedback, any questions about the platform or anything else you’re interested in.

About the author

My name is Lukáš Cupal and I work as a radiation physicist in the health sector. Since I take voluntary study of anything as a relaxation, I try to broaden my horizons in my free time also in the field of economics and investments. And when I do start something, I go in depth to make it meaningful.
Like many other investors, I jumped into the P2P business in my investment beginnings, mainly due to the accessibility of the platforms to ordinary investors. The riskiness of this business and the need for proper due diligence then motivated me to study financial statements and analysis in depth, which my mathematical heart warmly embraced. It also opened the way to the much larger world of equities.
My curiosity and initial fear then led me to try a lot of platforms, even though none domestic – from Czech Republic. Apart from well-known platforms like Mintos, EstateGuru, PeerBerry or Robocash, I also tried lesser-known platforms like Afranga, Moncera, LendSecured, Debitum Network, EvoEstate or BulkEstate.

Lukáš “Cupi” Cupal

Where to next?

• Regular reports on the development of our P2P portfolio
• LendSecured overview page on P2Ptrh
• Esketit: review of the P2P investment platform with Creamfinance loans