Dutch crowdfunder Lendahand expands in Europe

Social crowdfunder received its MiFID investment firm license

Rotterdam, December 9th 2016 – Dutch social crowdfunder Lendahand has received its Europe-wide MiFID investment firm license from The Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM). CEO Peter Heijen: ”With our MiFID license, we’re ready to scale up rapidly. We can now operate on a European level reaching a cross-border market. More importantly, we strive for impact first and expect to generate around 10,000 new jobs in emerging economies and to provide access to energy to at least 40,000 households in mainly Sub-Saharan Africa by the end of 2017”. 

On the market selection, Heijen comments: ”Lendahand will investigate the appetite to its propositions in the different European markets, before deciding which markets to focus on”. Lendahand targets savers and investors that are looking for a proper financial return, but also care about the social impact they create. Heijen: “That is what we call: double your return. We’re well positioned to become the leading social investment crowdfunder worldwide”.

About Lendahand
Lendahand is a Dutch based online lending platform where socially minded savers and investors can fund SMEs and sustainable initiatives in emerging economies. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in these countries do not have proper access to financing as they are too small for banks and too large and complex for microfinance institutions. Hence, they are not able to grow and only provide 30% of the jobs where 60% in developed countries is the average. Financing companies and sustainable initiatives leads to significant social impact while leaving room for a solid financial return. On our platform, people can unlock this potential by lending to financial institutions that in their turn lend to the borrowers. In case of direct loans, obviously there is no local partner in between. Besides social impact, investors receive a financial return of 3-6% on an annual basis.

Please visit our website for all available projects.