Dive into the world of iuvo, a P2P marketplace platform, through the lens of an insightful interview with their Director of Sales and Customer Relations Ivo Kirov. Uncover their unique strengths, ambitious plans, and expert predictions for the future of P2P investing.
The P2P marketplace platform iuvo was established in July 2016. Iuvo connects investors with credit companies seeking funding, offering a straightforward way to invest in loans and earn profits. Once the lender approves a loan, it's listed on iuvo's platform for investors to review and choose from. Investors receive payments to their Iuvo accounts based on their share of the loan's principal and interest.
What is iuvo's current situation (markets where you operate, loan originators, clients)?
Iuvo has been on the market for over seven years. For this time, iuvo has become one of the most popular and recognizable P2P marketplace platforms.
The main segments of iuvo's investors are from Bulgaria, Germany, Netherlands and Spain, followed by other countries in the European Union.
Currently, iuvo actively works with 13 loan originators from Bulgaria, Spain, Romania, North Macedonia, Latvia, and Poland (like EasyCredit, Ibancar, AXI Card Romania, and SN Finance).
Iuvo showcases significant statistical achievements in the P2P investing sphere. With loans totaling over €845 million listed on the platform, investors benefit from ample diversification opportunities. The maximum interest rate for listed loans is 13%, offering competitive returns compared to traditional options. On average, investors enjoy a solid annual return of 9.2%, ensuring consistent profitability. With a total invested amount exceeding €455 million, Iuvo continues to attract investors seeking stable and lucrative investment avenues.
What are your key differentiators from other P2P marketplace platforms in the market?
The main differentiator is iuvoSAVE. This savings alternative helps investors save and earn. It is structured, and there is no need for previous experience, no need to create complicated strategies or to spend time analyzing the market and reinvesting all the time. With just a few clicks, investors get fixed annual interest and a fixed investment period. Investors can add funds to an already activated iuvoSAVE product without changing the end date. A quick liquidity option allows investors to request an early withdrawal (before maturity) for up to 10,000 units per iuvoSAVE product per month for a small fee.
Another key differentiator is iuvo's support team and its proactive approach. Investors can quickly contact us via live chat, phone, or email and get the answers to their questions in seconds. The team helps new investors with their first steps on the platform by explaining the P2P investing business model, core features and specifics of iuvo, and other details. More experienced iuvo investors can also receive a call sometimes.
One of the things iuvo loves doing is providing opportunities for more profit in the form of bonuses, prizes, or other. Investors who take advantage of a bonus promo campaign increase their annual return significantly! The bonuses on iuvo are unmatched.
Iuvo is part of MFG, which significantly increases safety levels. MFG has over 30 companies, most of which are non-bank lending companies, in 7 European countries. MFG is looking to add an 8th country to this list and is working on its expansion in India, Mexico, and the USA. Many MFG companies have been on the market for over a decade and some - nearly two decades! The companies, part of the Group, are leaders in their respective markets and help generate a multi-million net profit every year. Over 8300 employees work for MFG.
MFG provides group guarantees for its originators on iuvo's market - Easy Credit, Viva Credit, iCredit, Access Finance, AXI Card, and iuvoHOME. The funds invested through iuvoSAVE are used by MFG, and the group guarantee also applies here.
What are your plans for 2024, and where do you see trends going?
The main goal of iuvo in 2024 is to launch the iuvoSAVE app for iOS and Android! We have been working on it for some time and are very excited to present it to our investors.
The trend is that more and more investors are interested in our savings product. For over a year and a half since we launched iuvoSAVE, it has already taken 20% of iuvo's portfolio, and this percentage is only increasing.
Iuvo continues to work on growing its P2P market as well. We are currently negotiating with several potential new loan originators to provide a wider variety of companies and more opportunities for diversification, including geographical diversification.
What role does technology play in iuvo's business?
As a fully online platform, it plays a crucial role in iuvo's business and development process. We have worked hard in the last few years to improve and modernize our tech stack. We are also constantly trying to utilize it in the best possible manner to deliver excellent service and customer experience to our investors and partners.
What are the biggest challenges you face as a fintech company?
As a fintech company, dealing with the more traditionally oriented people is the biggest challenge. They are not satisfied with what traditional saving and investment products offer. However, they are not quite ready to take a bit more risk to get what they seek because they are skeptical about fintech and newer financial products. It takes time and effort to help them make the brave but necessary step.
Which trends do you see in lending and P2P investing?
Iuvo's biggest loan originators are from Bulgaria. A recent study says that the share of consumers in Bulgaria who have gotten a non-bank consumer loan has grown by 8% in 2023 compared to 2022.
More loans granted means more loans on our P2P market, and a larger market means we can attract more investors. Trends in the lending business can affect the trends in peer-to-peer investing.
Our results for 2023 confirm this.
April 2023 was the most successful month in the 7-year history of iuvo in terms of net (added funds minus withdrawals) new funds added by investors. August 2023 was the strongest month in the history of iuvo in terms of the gross sum of newly added funds and second, in terms of net added funds after April 2023. August also had the highest gross and net amount of added funds by new investors in the history of iuvo; second place went to November 2023.
2023 is the year with the highest average added net amount by new investors in the 7-year history of iuvo. Compared to 2022, this amount has increased by 55%.
How has your client base developed/grown over time? What are the most significant difficulties in this area?
We have experienced rapid growth in our client base throughout the years we have been on the market. Our investors are individuals and companies that have free cash and want attractive returns, which traditional options cannot provide. Usually, they are not open to having investments that are too risky, like the modern and popular options that create a lot of buzz. They can be new to investing as an idea or experienced investors looking to diversify their portfolios.
With the growing popularity of iuvoSAVE, especially in Bulgaria, we are experiencing a new type of growth. A segment of users has been registered on our platform for a while but have never invested. Usually, the reasons are that these users do not fully understand the P2P business model, and the complexity even scares them. This segment of users is now becoming active and adding funds to iuvo for the first time because iuvoSAVE offers them everything they need -- simplicity. No time, effort, or experience are required.
Please share an interesting fact that most people do not know about iuvo.
Only a few people know where the name of our company comes from. "Iuvo" comes from Latin. It means "to help," which is also our mission - to help our investors to make their money work for them.
Partnership with Fintech Market
Iuvo and Fintech Market are forming a powerful partnership to streamline access to capital for lenders. Through Fintech Market's core system integration, lenders can seamlessly tap into Iuvo's vast pool of diverse loan originators, expanding their reach and investment opportunities instantly. This partnership directly benefits lenders by:
Simplifying access: Eliminate the need for separate platforms and applications, managing everything through Fintech Market's familiar interface.
Maximizing efficiency: Automating processes through the integration saves time and resources, allowing lenders to focus on strategic decisions.
This collaboration empowers lenders to leverage Iuvo's established expertise and extensive reach, unlocking significant potential to access additional capital and achieve sustainable growth within the P2P lending market.
Expanding the lending software with external partners
Fintech Market actively cultivates partnerships with various fintech entities across diverse markets, primarily enhancing its core system through third-party integration. By collaborating with integration providers offering various services including payments, communication gateways, verification, risk scoring, and additional lending capital like iuvo, Fintech Market expands its reach and capabilities. This strategic approach eliminates the need for lenders to manage multiple microservices independently. Instead, they can leverage a unified solution that seamlessly integrates external functionalities, streamlines operations, and enhances efficiency within the lending ecosystem.
About Fintech Market
Fintech Market (FTM) operates in the lending software market, offering a comprehensive SaaS-based loan management system for financial service providers. It includes essential features such as CRM, KYC, risk management, and debt management for loans, deposits, current accounts, and investments. With tailored solutions to optimize their operations, FTM serves neobanks, SMEs, car leasing companies, and buy-now-pay-later companies in the EU, Mexico, and Indonesia.
