Monethera and Wisefund – My Early Impressions and Experience so far

Important Update: Make sure you read my recent update on Monethera and why I decided to leave both in January.

I recently made two new additions to my P2P portfolio, Monethera and Wisefund. I was intrigued by the high interest rates of up to 21% per year, combined with the buyback guarantee.

However, since both Monethera and Wisefund are still very young, I decided to only invest 500€ into each for now. Before I consider increasing my investments there, I would first like to see if interest as well as principal payments arrive on time.

In this short post, I’m going to share my early impressions and my experience so far.

Please make sure you also read my January 2020 update at the end of the post.

Why I added Monethera and Wisefund

The interest rates on Mintos, my biggest peer to peer investment, decreased from up to 16,1% per year to around 12% over the past few weeks, which are normal fluctuations that usually happen every year. I’m expecting the interest rate there to start increasing again in the end of the year. Still, as a result, I was looking for a new addition to my P2P portfolio.

Since Monethera and Wisefund have many similarities with some of my other high-interest business loan platforms like Envestio and Crowdestor, I decided to give them a shot.

Why I’m limiting my investment to 500€ each for now

Both crowdlending platforms are very young and thus have a short track record, so proceed with caution if you consider an investment!

That’s what I’m doing as well – I ‘only’ invested 500€ into each for the beginning, to see if interest and principal payments arrive on time, before I consider adding more funds.

The communication with Monethera and Wisefund has been good so far, but I’m also hoping to talk directly to the CEOs in the near future to gather more insights about each platform.

Monethera

Monethera’s story seems to be very similar to Envestio. They started as a private investment fund in 2017 and then launched their public crowdlending platform a couple of months ago.

The team behind Monethera

The company has a small team of currently three members. According to their Linkedin profiles, they seem to have a solid background in finance.

Monethera was founded by Andis Taubers and another entrepreneur, Andrei Bogdanov. Andrei Bogdanov is still co-owner, but since he’s not displayed on the website, I’m assuming that he’s not involved in everyday activities. I will try to find out more on the subject.

21% Interest with a Buyback Guarantee?

Monethera offers investments in business loans with high interest rates of up to 21,1% per year. Most of them are short-term, with durations of 3-12 months so far. All of the loans come with a buyback guarantee.

How Monethera’s Buyback guarantee works

If you want to sell a current investment you made because you need the money back sooner, you can sell it back directly to Monethera. In this case, you get back the principal amount minus a buyback-fee, which you can find on the project page and typically ranges between 5-10%.

And now, let’s take a look at how the buyback guarantee works according to Monethera’s website:

• If a project is unable to pay back the principal amount at the end of the loan period, they start the default procedure.
• First, over the next month, Monethera returns 35% of the investment amount to your account, from their reserve fund.
• Then, since each project has an agreement, the money is secured. The project undertakes to pay the remaining 65% of the invested capital, but the repayment period may differ, depending on when Monethera receives the money from the project. The borrower has to pay the annual interest rate on any delay as well.
• In extreme cases, the process may require a trial, which Monethera’s lawyers are prepared for. Usually, the repayment in this case can take 6-12 months, after which the money is returned to your account.

My Monethera experience so far

I started investing on Monethera on the 16th of August and spread my investment evenly over the 5 available projects at the time.

My returns so far are made up of the first couple of interest payments, which arrived on time on the first of September, as well as the 5€ Signup Bonus and the 0,5% Cashback, which I received right after I invested the money.

What I like about Monethera so far

• High interest rates of up to 21,1% per year
• Interesting projects with short loan durations and the minimum investment is as low as 1€
• Buyback guarantee
• Being able to sell back a loan to Monethera before the end of the loan-term
• Interest is paid on the first of every month and mine arrived on time so far

What I dislike about Monethera so far

• Some translations need to be improved
• I’m missing downloadable loan agreements (I’m looking at you as well, Envestio!), hopefully they will be added
• Some stock images should be removed or replaced with more pictures from the project
• Short track record, so we’ll have to wait and see how Monethera deals with a potential default and how well the buyback guarantee works

Wisefund

Wisefund is based in Tallinn, Estonia, just like Monethera. The P2P platform was launched recently, in March 2019. As a result, it too only has a short track record so far and will have to prove itself.

The team behind Wisefund

The company was founded by Olga Bobrova. It’s nice to see a female founder of a crowdlending company for a change. According to their Linkedin profiles, she also seems to be the team-member with the most experience in the financial sector. The team is made up of six people at the moment.

Wisefund also cooperates with Nord Capital Markets, a company focusing on global financial markets and financial analysis, to help them assess the financial stability and creditworthiness of businesses that are looking for funding on the platform.

19% Interest with a Buyback Guarantee?

Wisefund also offers mostly short-term business loans with durations of 4-9 months and high interest rates up to 19,7% per year on its platform. All the loans come with a buyback guarantee.

One key difference compared to other platforms I’m invested in is that Wisefund not only offers loan opportunities from the Baltics and Poland, but also for German and Swiss companies.

How Wisefund’s Buyback guarantee works

Just like Monethera, Wisefund offers you the possibility to sell your investment before the end of the loan period as well. If you do that, you’ll get back your investment minus the early-exit fee, which you can also find detailed under each project. The early-exit fee currently ranges from 5-15%.

And here’s how the buyback guarantee works according to Wisefund’s website:

• If a loan defaults or is over 60 days late, there is a buyback guarantee for 100% of the loan principal by a third party partner. Note: I hope we’ll find out more about this partner soon.
• As a result, investors should get back 100% of their investment in case of a default or longer delay.
• In addition, Wisefund set up a protecion fund into which they continually add a certain percentage of each loan as it gets funded. That way they want to ensure that you also receive interest payments on a late or defaulted loan.

My Wisefund experience so far

I started my investment journey on Wisefund very recently, on the 21st of August. I spread my initial 500€ investment evenly over the 3 available projects at the time.

I already received the first couple of interest payments in the end of August as well as the 0,5% Cashback, right after I invested my funds.

What I like about Wisefund so far

• High interest rates of up to 19,7% per year
• Short-term business loans not only from the Baltics, but also from Germany and Switzerland
• Buyback guarantee covering 100% principal + interest via the buyback fund
• Possibility to sell back a loan to Wisefund before the end of the loan-term
• Every loan comes with a downloadable loan agreement, like on Crowdestor
• Nicely designed website, with a nice overview of all the upcoming interest and principal payments

What I dislike about Wisefund so far

• Who is the third party partner offering the buyback guarantee?
• Too many stock images, which should be replaced with more pictures from the projects themselves
• Short track record, we’ll have to wait and see how well Wisefund’s buyback guarantee works if/when we have a default or delayed payment

Conclusion

There you have it, I hope I was able to share my early impressions and limited experience with both platforms. I wanted to tell you the reasons why I added them to my peer to peer portfolio before publishing my next monthly update, but also explain why I’m still being cautious and only invested smaller amounts into each for now.

The high-interest projects offered on Monethera and Wisefund, combined with the buyback guarantee look very promising, hopefully they’ll both have a bright future in front of them. Still, don’t forget that they have a very short track record so far, so proceed with caution if you consider an investment as well.

What do you think of Monethera and Wisefund?

Update (January 18th, 2020)

I decided to start withdrawing the interest and principal payments I receive on both platforms on a monthly basis. Here is why.