Today, we’ll be looking at the best alternatives to Mintos. While Mintos holds the position as Europe’s largest marketplace for peer-to-peer loans, it’s not the only fish in the sea. Several platforms offer the same fintech model of connecting borrowers with lenders and are now challenging Mintos’ supposed right to the throne.
Mintos lets you select between a great number of loan originators, but diversifying across multiple platforms may be a good idea to lower the overall risk of losing money. Besides personal loans, you might also want to explore alternatives to Mintos from different sectors, such as real estate crowdfunding and business lending, to reduce your exposure to one type of loans.
These Are the Best Mintos Alternatives
- EstateGuru: 12% p.a. secured by property. Leading real estate crowdfunding platform in Europe. 46,000 investors. Licensed company with transparent financials.
- Twino: 11% p.a. 2nd largest peer-to-peer lending platform in Europe. Provides buyback on loans and has a long track record in the industry.
- PeerBerry: 13.7% p.a. 3rd largest platform. Offers consumer loans with buyback guarantee.
- Ablrate: 15% p.a. from businesses with collateral. Licensed and regulated UK platform with great track record of completed projects.
- BulkEstate: 15% p.a. from property loans. Licensed real estate crowdfunding platform with impressive portfolio.
- CrowdEstate: 17% p.a. from real estate and businesses loans.
- Viainvest: 11.8% p.a. from consumer loans with buyback guarantee.
1. EstateGuru
Average return: 12.10%
Minimum investment: €50
Buyback guarantee: All loans are secured through property
Secondary market: Yes
Auto-invest: Yes
Average loan duration: 10.5 months
Amount of loans funded: 1,099+
Number of investors: 34,705+
EstateGuru is one of the largest real estate crowdfunding platform in Europe, boasting more than €160 million in lent capital to developers and businesses. And as such, EstateGuru corresponds closely to Mintos in terms of size, popularity and seriousness. Like Mintos, returns on EstateGuru averages 9-12% per year, with several cashback offers launched regularly rocket-boost your earnings.
EstateGuru has a pristine track record with zero capital loss since launching in 2014. For a company dealing with property development and renovation, such numbers are indeed impressive, especially considering the enormous amount project they’re hosting. EstateGuru’s smooth auto-invest function, combined with the fact that new projects launched on a near-daily basis, effectively eliminates the annoying cash-drag known from other peer-to-peer lending services. Another familiar feature is the newly launched and lively secondary market which allows you to liquidize your portfolio fairly quickly.
In contrast to the buyback-guarantee that hinges on the finances of the loan originator, all credit on EstateGuru is secured with real-estate as collateral.
When it comes to accessibility and user-friendliness, EstateGuru provides an simple interface that’s incredibly easy to navigate. However, simplicity doesn’t mean lack of information: Every project on EstateGuru comes with very detailed documentation and financial details for you to assess the validity of the project and borrower. When this real estate crowdfunding platform brands itself as the “leading marketplace for short-term property loans in continental Europe”, there’s definitely something to it.
2. Twino
Average interest rate: Up to 11%
Minimum investment: €10
Buyback guarantee: Yes – after 60 days delay
Loan duration: Typically 1-3 months
Secondary market: Yes
Number of investors: 18,750+
Interest paid to investors: 10M+
Currencies: EUR
Twino is one of the oldest peer-to-peer lending platforms in Continental Europe, and having issued around €1 billion in loans since its inception in 2009, the company remains a strong competitor to Mintos in multiple regards. Over the years, Twino has proven itself a serious company that now employs 400 people across 6 countries. With this market forerunner, you’ll be investing in a large selection of consumer loans issued by the Twino Group in return for interest rates in excess of 10% per year.
Like Mintos, Twino makes it possible to go completely hands-off, letting you build multiple automated portfolios for buying loan shares according to your desired criteria, as well as reselling them on a secondary market. In terms of securing your money, Twino provides the expected buyback guarantee on most loans – a protection scheme that has now become a standard on most peer-to-peer lending platforms in Europe. Overall, Twino offers an easy-to-use and intuitive alternative to Mintos with excellent options for diversification and risk-mitigation.
3. PeerBerry
Average interest rate: 11.54%
Minimum investment: €10
Auto-invest: Yes
Secondary market: No
Number of investors: 15,330+
Interest paid to investors: €1,394,000+
Currencies: EUR
Placing a heavy emphasis on short-term loans, Latvian-based PeerBerry tops our list of alternatives to Mintos not just because of its attractive interest rates that go as high as 13,7% but also due to its considerable market size. According to internal statistics, PeerBerry now claims over 200M euro worth of funded loans while attracting around 1,400 new users every month. If you’re looking for peer-to-peer lending platform in Europe for consumer loans with a proven track record and high levels of transparency, PeerBerry is the number one competitor to Mintos you should look into.
Comparing Mintos vs PeerBerry side-by-side, you’ll find that PeerBerry offers similar attractive rates as Mintos and most of the functions that you’re familiar with, like the auto-invest feature and buyback guarantee on delinquent loans. The key difference being that PeerBerry was created by the Aventus Group, a profitable online loan provider, to provide them with extra liquidity. Unlike Mintos, the Aventus Group is a very profitable company that posed a net profit of 12.6M euro in 2019.
4. AblRate
Interest rate: Up to 15%
Minimum investment: £1
Buyback guarantee: All loans are collateralised
Secondary market: Yes
Loans funded: £52,000,00+
Ablrate is a popular UK peer-to-business lending platform that is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Like Mintos, Ablrate boasts a huge loan books and functions much in the same way, the key difference being Ablrate focuses on business and real estate instead of personal loans.
You’ll recognize several features similar to Mintos, such as rates ranging from 12-14%, secured loans, as well as a highly adjustable auto-invest function. However, you’ll find that Ablrate lacks some of the detailed statistics and large secondary market for which Mintos is known. Nonetheless, Ablrate remains an attractive platform that continues to grow rapidly. And when it comes to liquidity, your money probably won’t sit still, as there’s almost always loans to invest in.
5. BulkEstate
Average return: 15.35%
Minimum investment: €50
Auto-invest: Yes
Buyback guarantee: All loans are secured by real estate as collateral
Secondary market: No
Average loan term: 12 months
Estonia-based BulkEstate takes the second place among the best real-estate crowdfunding alternatives to Mintos. BulkEstate offers an extremely popular and intuitive platform for investing in European real estate online. With high annual rates around 13-15% and a minimum contribution of only €50, the company is fast becoming a major industry player. BulkEstate was launched in 2014 with the aim of making it easier for persons and corporations to take part in the rapidly-growing Baltic real-estate market, and the company has now received more than 17,311+ investments from all around the world.
The platform’s immense popularity comes down to two key factors: High interest rates and zero defaulted projects. Most projects on BulkEstate sell out extremely fast, so make sure to subscribe their newsletter to stay on track with the latest projects (or enable to auto-invest function). Like EstateGuru, all loans are secured with the property as collateral.
BulkEstate primarily offers development and renovation projects, but they set themselves apart from the competitors by offering highly-coveted group-buying deals. Group buying (or ‘crowd-owning’) lets you buy single flats or entire buildings far below the market value (up to 35% discount). The way group-buying works is that owners of entire residential buildings put all units (the entire building) up for sale, and BulkeEstate then invites its users to purchase one or more of these units.
6. CrowdEstate
Average return: 17.77%
Minimum investment: €100
Autoinvest: Yes
Secondary market: Yes
No. of investors: 40,000+
Headquaters: Tallinn
CEO: Loit Linnupold
CrowdEstate holds the third place among the best European real estate crowdfunding alternatives to Mintos. Founded in 2014 by Estonioan ex-banker Loit Linnupõld, Crowdestate has quickly consolidated its position as an important player in the Baltic real estate market. The company offers high annual returns ranging from 10-18% from real estate development projects, as well as lucrative business lending opportunities.
Here’s an example of a rental property in Milan:
And the expected total returns from the same project:
As you might have figured, CrowdEstate is immensely popular and their projects often get funded within hours. So make sure to enable the auto-invest function if you want a piece of the property pie. According to their own company profile, CrowdEstate takes vetting extremely seriously and hence rejects 95% of all loan applicants.
Choosing a platform that prefers quality to quantity is definitely worth keeping in mind when getting started with property lending. But what I personally look for when choosing a project is this: Is it secured through a mortgage, pledge on the land or something of similar value? Luckily, most CrowdEstate properties include these. Keep in mind that, as tons of users want in on their high-yielding projects, their auto-invest function might only invests small amounts of your available funds. Consequently, you might want to explore some of the other options listed here to get your real estate portfolio activated properly.
7. Viainvest
Average interest rate: 11.8%
Minimum investment: €10
Buyback guarantee: Yes, on consumer loans.
Auto-invest: Yes
No. of investors: 11,529
Currencies: EUR
Owned and operated by the large-scale European consumer lender VIA SMS Group, ViaInvest is a leading peer-to-peer marketplace for investing in short term loans for an annual return of 11%, making it another excellent Mintos alternative. Since inception, VIA SMS has issued loans worth €91M, grown its revenue at an annual rate of 22%, and currently staffs 220 employees around the world. The stated aim of the company is to build a trustworthy and transparent investment product compliant with local and European legislation, for which reason all annual financial reports are audited by the international accounting firm BDO and published publicly for you to review.
If you’re wondering which is better, Mintos vs ViaInvest, the key difference to keep in mind is that ViaInvest is proprietary platform whose deal flowmainly consists of loans issued by the VIA SMS Group and its daughter companies. In most other regards, ViaInvest is quite similar to Mintos, and both platforms are good choices for diversification and provide identical security features. Analogous to Mintos, ViaInvest loan originators backs all consumer loans with a buyback guarantee, meaning the principal and accrued interest will get refunded to your account, if the borrower has delayed payments for more than 30 days.
Consumer Loan Platforms Similar to Mintos
The market for personal loans is exploding. In fact, the alternative finance market for consumer credit in Europe grows a staggering 99% per year, according to the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance. To meet this insatiable demand, non-bank loan providers around the world have partnered with peer-to-peer lending platforms in Europe to invite retail investors help finance their customers’ short-term money needs.
Today, Mintos holds close to 50% of the market share in continental Europe, owing its success and burgeoning user base to the booming need for retail credit. However, its monopolistic status in the industry is challenged by multiple noteworthy competitors that offer features and rates similar to Mintos but with different loan originators to select between.
Real Estate Crowdfunding Alternatives to Mintos
European real-estate crowdfunding has become an attractive alternative to Mintos in recent years. Today, it’s possible to invest in apartments, houses, and development projects online with other investors without needing the capital to buy the property alone. Investing in real-estate through crowdfunding sites is a fantastic way to build a passive income stream from mortgage-backed projects, as opposed to the asset-less consumer loans provided by Mintos.
The great thing about European real-estate crowdfunding sites is that you can diversify across several properties. Instead of pouring all your funds into a single building or apartment, real-estate crowdfunding sites let you join in on projects for very low sums of money (often below €100). The platform takes care of all the hard work and you simply select the projects you find most promising.
The way real-estate crowdfunding sites in Europe work is usually by gathering capital from several investors to issue loans to whoever is buying or renovating the property. Most of the time, you’ll be receiving monthly interest from your investment plus the original principal at the end of the loan term. On some sites, you’ll instead receive rental income, as if you owned the property.
Business Crowdfunding Sites Similar to Mintos
Businesses peer-to-peer lending, also called business crowdlending, makes another great choice for an alternative to Mintos’s consumer loans. Much like real-estate crowdfunding, business crowdlending platforms provide a way to make joint investments in interesting companies with other people.
The way business crowdlending usually works is that the peer-to-business platforms pool capital together from multiple independent investors to issue loans to companies. But why would businesses take out loans from alternative finance providers? For several reasons, for example to expand production, buy new machinery or develop new projects.
While crowdlending to businesses often promise much higher rates than real-estate loans, the excellent profits potentially also carry increased risks. Always do your due diligence and investigate all possible project details before jumping in. On the other hand, it’s often the case banks prefer giving loans to large-scale enterprises, while neglecting healthy small and middle-sized companies, making them turn to alternative finance providers.
