Preceding our SPEND Event in a couple weeks, we started yesterday to interview some of our speakers by asking a few questions to Kantox’ CEO Phillipe Gelis about the new ways consumers and enterprises send money, most particularly how they deal with foreign exchange.
Today we explore another subject, with Oliver Goy, CEO, and founder of Paris-based Lendix, who is going to speak at SPEND about the potential of peer-to-peer lending.
Lendix is the leading small-medium enterprise lending platform in France in 2015 and won the 2015 Fintech Challenge organized by the Boston Consulting Group in London. It offers the possibility for SMEs to borrow directly from the general public through its online platform, allowing private investors to boost their savings at the same time.
This new solution provides an opportunity for businesses to diversify their sources of funding. Business owners already borrowed a total of €18M via Lendix since its creation in 2014. The company raised €7M in venture capital since 2015 from investors including Partech Ventures or Weber Investments.
Olivier Goy – Founder & CEO, Lendix
Why did you decide to create Lendix ?
Goy: Lendix is a revolution both for lenders (eg. Individual investors) and borrowers (eg SMEs). My previous company (123Venture, a private equity dedicated to retail investors with €1.2bn AUM) was already dealing with both retail investors and SMEs, so I thought that marketplace lending was a perfect business for me considering my background.
What are the main differences between this solution and traditional lending services ?
Goy: For SMEs, it’s a unique way to diversify their funding without going through the traditional banking system. They get their money quickly without any warranties, collaterals… For Investors : It’s a new asset class offering unique yield (average 6.5%).
Why should SMEs use P2P lending ?
Goy: Quick access to a loan, no collateral, no warranties, no insurance. Lenders assume the risk.
What is the biggest challenge scaling Lendix ?
Goy: We have to evangelize, SMEs used to go – for years – through the banking system.
How do you see the future of lending in general ?
Goy: So far, we know a strong growth with 30% growth MoM (#1 on the French market). So we are excited and are currently opening offices in Spain and Italy.
If you want to learn more about how the way enterprises lend money is changing, join more than 500 professionals at the core of finance and technology convergence at SPEND Paris, sponsored by BNP Paribas. For this occasion, we lined up 25 speakers from San Francisco (Raphael Ouzan – VP of Product, Prosper), London (Philippe Gelis – Co-Founder & CEO, Kantox), Berlin (Christian Tiessen – Co-Founder, Savedo) and, of course, Paris (Jérôme Traisnel – Co-Founder & CEO, SlimPay). If you are interested in attending the event, you can still get your ticket below, and if you are a startup, the ticket’s price is only €39 instead of €149.