Lithuania’s Finbee expands into Poland
Lithuanian peer-to-peer lending platform Finbee has expanded its business into Poland.
The alternative lender will provide loans of up to PLN200,000 (£38,673) to small- and medium-sized businesses in Poland for up to three years without collateral.
Tomas Mačiulaitis, chief executive of Finbee Verslui, said that the platform has no plans to expand into any other countries, and chose Poland due to its strong economy and loan recovery processes.
“First, we focused on choosing a country within the European region,” explained Mačiulaitis. “Then we analysed ten potential countries based on various criteria – macroeconomic indicators, political stability, market size, and access to financing sources for businesses.
Read more: European P2P sector forecast to become more competitive
“Finally, we thoroughly assessed nuances related to our business, such as the processes for recovering bad loans, and decided that Poland is currently the most attractive country for expansion.”
A company called Finbee Poland has been created to manage the new Polish business. It will be led by Aleksander Rutkowski, former chief executive of Kreditech Poland. In this role, he led strategic product development and market growth.
All Finbee Poland loans will be financed through the company’s funding sources, specifically its own capital and borrowed funds from institutional investors, rather than through a crowdfunding model.
Finbee recently inked a funding deal with the European Investment Fund to accelerate its lending activities in Lithuania.
Read more: EIF partners with Finbee to channel €19m to Lithuanian micro-businesses
“We have accumulated years of experience financing small businesses in Lithuania and have already financed several thousand such companies since we started operating,” added Mačiulaitis.
“This is the segment we understand best and can serve effectively, so we will similarly focus here in Poland. Poles are known for their entrepreneurship, with a particularly high number of small micro businesses that employ up to 10 people. There are over 2.2 million of these registered in Poland, and they are our potential clients.
“This is our first step toward becoming an international alternative lending company, so at this time, we aim for a very clear focus on expansion in this country.”
