- Runa Capital, Verdane Capital, mojo.capital and existing investors including Earlybird Venture Capital have invested $34 million into smava
- smava has originated more than $1.75 billion in loans through its marketplace platform
Berlin, September 30th, 2016 – smava, the leading marketplace lender in Germany, today announced that it has closed a $34 million investment which was led by growth investor Runa Capital, with additional participation from Verdane Capital and mojo.capital. Runa Capital is a renowned international venture capital firm with deep experience in the Fintech sector from investments into companies like Zopa, Lendingrobot and Lendio. Verdane Capital is a Scandinavian private equity firm with a long history of investing in the consumer internet space. Existing investors including Earlybird Venture Capital also participated in the investment. Andre Bliznyuk, Partner at Runa Capital, and Hendrik Aspén, Partner at Verdane Capital will join the advisory board of smava.
“We are thrilled about Runa Capital, Verdane Capital and mojo.capital joining smava,” says Alexander Artopé, CEO and co-founder of smava. We’re dedicated to executing our mission to provide fully automated personal loans with the best interest rates to prime customers. The new capital will allow us to expand our customer base, hire additional talent and continue enhancing our scoring technology.”
“We are excited to partner with smava and to invest in a platform that is transforming how prime consumers borrow money”, said Andre Bliznyuk, Partner at Runa Capital. There are a lot of personal loan offers in Germany, but they are neither convenient nor priced attractively enough for prime customers. smava continues to prove that technological innovation can materially improve the customer experience. And smava does not just have a vision, they are already providing thousands of prime consumers with personal loans every month.”
Hendrik Aspén, Partner of Verdane Capital: “smava is one of the most promising European Fintech companies. Given that the online penetration for personal loans is still below 10% in most European countries, the best is yet to come for smava. We look forward to working with Alexander and his team.”
Matthias Ummenhofer, Partner of mojo.capital: “smava is the leading marketplace lender in Germany and well positioned to sustain its tremendous growth for the long term. The team and the product have impressed us very much”.
Christian Nagel, partner of Earlybird: “As a longstanding investor in smava we are delighted to partner with Runa Capital, Verdane Capital and mojo.capital. In the last years smava has grown rapidly and exceeded a loan volume of 1.75 billion US dollars. With this round, smava will further enhance its technology and cement its leading market position.”
smava is the only marketplace lender in Germany which offers both bank-branded and funded third-party loans as well as loans which are funded by private individuals (P2P loans). smava has developed and continuously refined its proprietary credit scoring and matching technology since 2007. This leads to a superior ability to bring together borrowers and lenders and to offer the most attractive rates for each borrower.
About smava.de
Germany’s leading marketplace lender connects private borrowers with a broad selection of banks and private investors on its marketplace. smava offers personal loans ranging from 1,000 to 120,000 Euros. Due to its innovative scoring technology and the wide range of available loans a borrower can obtain a loan at the best interest rates. Borrowers also benefit from free and independent loan advise. Borrowers use financing for a broad variety of purposes like car purchases, debt consolidation and general consumption. The FinTech company has originated a cumulative loan volume of more than $1.75 billion since inception. Currently, more than 180 employees work for the Berlin based company.
More information at www.smava.de.
