In this WiseFund review, we will take a look at the rates, safety, reliability, and bonus offer of this business crowdlending platform. So let’s dive right in:
What is WiseFund?
WiseFund is a p2b crowdlending platform based in Tallinn, Estonia. The platform was founded recently in March 2019, but its management has years of experience in finance. WiseFund offers loan deals from all over Europe for investment. It is similar to Crowdestor, but is the most similar to Monethera because it is more recent and less established than the first two. The platform offers exceptionally high rates and a buyback guarantee (the exact terms of the buyback will be analyzed in this post as well). The loans are listed in EUR; you can start investing from €10, and with annual interest rates around 18%.
Loans
All loans on WiseFund are business loans. The loan purpose varies widely, and so does the field of operations. The companies operate in areas like agriculture, logistics, warehousing, retail, etc. The loan duration is rather short for these types of investments, which most investors will find as a positive. They start at just 4 and can be as long as 12 months. WiseFund provides plenty of data about the companies, and purpose of the loan and what the loan will be satisfying. Although they could provide a bit more information on the financial aspect of these businesses, I find that the necessary information is there. You can find this information on their website right after registering.
To analyze these businesses, WiseFund teamed up with Nord Capital Markets, which is a Latvian company that helps them analyze the businesses that request funding.
So far, there are loans from Poland, Switzerland, Netherlands, Czech Republic, and Germany.
Rates
WiseFund claims rates up to 21%, but with my experience with the platform, I have only seen rates between 16% and 19.8%. Not bad at all, but I still wanted to point that out. Maybe there are some other projects in the pipeline with higher rates but I happy at this level anyway.
All loans pay interest monthly and it is calculated from the day the investor lends the funds. However, unlike Crowdestor, Kuetal, and other platforms, WiseFund pays interest from the day the loan gets funded and not from the day you invest. This could mean that you could lose a couple of days worth of interest, especially since the platform is new, and projects don’t get funded immediately.
Loan Liquidity
The platform is pretty new right now, and it pretty liquid. You can invest your available funds without waiting for a project to be published. That can, of course, change when the platform becomes popular with time like we’ve seen with Crowdestor.
Buyback Guarantee
In my opinion, WiseFund’s buyback guarantee is its main selling point. They have entered into an agreement with a third party investor who guarantees to buy out any claim on a loan that is late for more than 60 days and will pursue debt recovery actions on its own. You, as an investor, bear no responsibility on defaulted loans, which are covered by the buy-back guarantee. Currently, all loans on the platform are covered by the buyback guarantee.
Auto-invest
WiseFund does not offer an auto-invest function, but this is not a problem for me since projects are quite large and are not funded very quickly. This gives you enough time to review the project and invest.
Early Exit
WiseFund does not have a secondary market, but they do have an early exit option.
It’s possible to sell investments back to the platform. Unfortunately, the fee for this early exit option is very high. Usually, it is between 10% and 15%. Now since loans are for a short period of time, I believe you shouldn’t perform this action.
Risks
Obviously, there is the risk of default, but with the existence and the buyback guarantee that is mediated and that can put your mind at ease. There are no defaulted projects as of right now, but this is a young platform, and although this is encouraging, it doesn’t mean that. Then, there is the platform risk, for more information about that, you can check my “What Is P2P Lending” article.
Fees
As I said earlier, there is this the 10% to 15% early exit fee if you wish to sell the loan back to WiseFund before maturity but, other than that, there are no additional fees on the platform.
Sign-Up Process
The sign-up process is pretty usual and within range of what you should anticipate. You can click on this link (by doing that, you will also receive 0.5% cashback for the first 270 days) and follow the steps. You will also be required to verify your identity by uploading your ID card.
WiseFund Alternatives
WiseFund’s main competitors are Crowdestor, Monethera, also, CrowdEstate, EstateGuru, BulkEstate and Grupeer. You can click here to check platform reviews and here to see the bonuses that some of them provide.
WiseFund Review – Conclusion
The platform offers some very appealing investment opportunities because it combines high yields, a complete buyback guarantee, and a generous sign-up bonus.
The negative side of the platform is that it is brand new, and that comes with an inherent risk. The early exit fee is also pretty high, so if you decide to invest, make sure that you will keep the investment till maturity and try to opt for short duration loans from the get-go.
WiseFund Promo Bonus
This is an unbiased WiseFund review. However, if you would like to give this platform a try, I would welcome it if you could use my referral link. This link gives you an exclusive 0.5% cashback from each investment made during your first 270 days on the platform.
P2P Income 