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Swaper Review

Swaper review
P2P lending platform Swaper

Swaper is a p2p lending platform where investors invest their money in financing small consumer loans. Investments are made on a short-term, automated basis, in line with an operating model that has remained constant over the last few years.

The rates offered are among the highest on the market (even including cash-drag), which explains why Swaper has met with a degree of success despite a very limited communication policy and an offer that is not very diversified in terms of loan originators.

Let’s perform together Swaper review.

Table des matières

What is Swaper ?

Swaper is a peer-to-peer lending platform operating from Estonia that connects investors with Wandoo Finance Group and One Leasing as loan originators. Starting from €10, investors lend their funds to individuals borrowing money to fund consumer loans or vehicle leasing in exchange for a predetermined return on investment.

Swaper history

Swaper was originally established not in Estonia but in Latvia in July 2016 under the name “Swaper SIA” and the unified registration number 40203005445. Its one and only shareholder at that time was the Wandoo Finance Group founded a few months earlier by Iveta Brūvele.

With a background in law, Iveta Brūvele began her career in the financial sector (Swedbank, 4finance, etc.) before moving into the P2P lending sector.

Iveta Brūvele (below foreground) was successively Country Manager for P2P platform Twino in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Russia. She has also sat on the boards of several companies providing financial services.

Iveta Bruvele during benziga fintech awards

By successively founding the Wandoo Finance Group and Swaper, her objective was to offer European investors access to the short-term consumer loan markets in Central and Eastern Europe.

For more than two years, Iveta Bruvele simultaneously managed the development of the Wandoo Finance Group and its own marketplace, Swaper.

On the one hand, Swaper was promoted as a FinTech marketplace bringing together investors and loan originators. On the other hand, Wandoo Finance Group was developing its subsidiaries through strategies tailored to national specificities.

However, Iveta quickly saw the limits of such a strategy and decided to focus on Wandoo Finance Group, selling the crowdlending platform to Marina Tjulinova, an Estonian with a strong financial background.

Company “Swaper Platform OÜ”

The company “Swaper SIA” has not been sold as such, as it is still active and remains a subsidiary of Wandoo Finance Group. Instead, a new entity has been created under Estonian law, which is more flexible to P2P lending.

In May 2019, the company “Swaper Platform OÜ” located in Tallinn, Estonia, was created under registration number 14726410. It is a limited liability company with a share capital of €100,000.

Swaper main Shareholder

Swaper’s only shareholder is Estonian Marina Tjulinova, who has extensive training in accounting and finance, specialising in financial reporting.

Marina has spent most of her career with the Tallinn-based auditing firm I.S. Audiitorteenuste OÜ. She is responsible for both financial and legal matters at Swaper. 

She has also been Finance Officer (and occasional shareholder) of Neotech Development OÜ since 2012. This Estonian IT company generates revenue of €9m and currently employs 112 persons.

Marina Tjulinova linkedin

The management team

Since July 2020, the Swaper marketplace has been managed by Indrek Puolokainen, whose communication policy has been reduced to a strict minimum, with just one or two appearances a year at conferences.

Indrek Puolokainen graduated as a computer scientist from Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech). He then obtained an MBA in Marketing and Management at the University of Tartu, also in Estonia.

Indeed, he has spent his entire career in marketing, notably at Olympic Entertainment Group and Paxful. He then set up his own consulting company focused on converting web visitors into customers: Omarada.

Indrek Puolokainen receives a reward for Swaper

At his side, we find Zane Ziedone as Head of Legal and Compliance since May 2021. She is a Latvian lawyer who was Head of legal department in the wellness sector before joining the world of P2P lending in 2017.

She first started out in Latvia at Twino as a legal advisor where she stayed for 1.5 years before joining Mintos in 2019 in a similar role. Two years later, she joined Swaper where her role appears to focus on legal and commercial procedures.

We also have Kadi Kivi, Customer Onboarding Specialist, in charge of communication with investors and bloggers, as well as the content strategy for the website and social networks.

This is surprising given that Kadi has never contacted our blog since she was hired in December 2020 and her last post on X (formerly Twitter) was in 2021.

Zane Ziedone

Zane Ziedone

Kadi Kivi

Kadi Kivi

Swaper statistics in 2023

Here are some statistics for the current year :

  • Total funds invested : € 454.8M
  • Total amount paid out to investors : €6.94M
  • Average annual return : 12.3%*
  • Number of investors : 6,000+
  • Average portfolio per investor : €546

*Estimation for a portfolio of less than €25K with an annual rate of 14% and 12% cash-drag

In terms of volumes funded, following a sharp fall during the Covid-19 crisis, Swaper took almost two years to approach €10M per month again, notably by increasing its standard return from 12% to 14%.

Since then, the platform has grown steadily, beating its previous record every month and now topping the €12 million mark for investments per month.

Swaper funded volumes until September 2023

How does Swaper work ?

Swaper is a P2P lending platform where lending companies offer individual and corporate investors the opportunity to co-fund borrowers engaged in consumer or business loans (Wandoo Finance Group) and vehicle leasing (One Leasing). In return, investors receive interest payments and benefit from a buyback guarantee in case of non-reimbursement.

How swaper works

Swaper is a P2P lending platform

It is difficult to consider Swaper as a pure peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace considering only two loan originators propose to invest (Wandoo Finance Group and One Leasing). It is much more a P2P lending platform connecting investors with Wandoo subsidiaries that also propose some additional leasing opportunities with One Leasing.

On one hand, loan originators lend money in exchange for interest to borrowers, mostly individuals, who need consumer loans to purchase personal goods or services, or who lease a car as they cannot afford to buy a new or second-hand one directly.

On the other hand, some investors (individuals or companies) are looking for investment opportunities to grow their capital. To do so, they propose to lend money to loan originators in exchange for payment of interests on a predetermined basis.

How does Swaper work

The role of the platform Swaper is to facilitate the connection between supply of capital from investors and demand for co-investments by loan originators.

By helping loan originators to raise some capital, the P2P lending platform receives a commission expressed as a percentage.

Investors do not pay any fees to Swaper to make deposits, withdrawals, or to use any other functionality when investing on the platform. And as the return on investment is fixed at 14% (16% from €25K upward), investors can forecast the profit to be received.

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Chronology of a P2B investment

On Swaper, the minimum amount that can be invested in a loan is €10 and the maximum amount is determined by the loan itself or by the “Max investment per loan” each investor can indicate in their auto-invest settings.

When a loan from Wandoo Finance Group is listed for investment on Swaper, it is in “current” status during the first 30 days. Then, the loan is reimbursed with interest and disappears from the platform.

But the loan may stay live and becomes “delayed” if the borrower has not yet transferred the required payments or “extended” if they have asked for a 30 day-extension. In that later case, they generally pay part of the amount they owe.

Best p2p lending returns ranking

After this extension period, either the loan is repaid or it goes into “delayed” status. Either way, the maximum length of delay is 60 days (1 day for credit lines), after which time the buyback guarantee is activated and the investor is paid.

Regardless of whether the loan is “current”, “delayed” or “extended”, interest will continue to be calculated and paid to the investor at some point.

For One Leasing, the system is relatively similar but extended over a longer period, with payments due every 30 days for several months (the maximum duration for a leasing loan is 48 months).

P2P lending returns

Swaper loan originators

Wandoo Finance Group

The Wandoo Finance Group, in fact “Wandoo Finance SIA” (registration number 40103970112), is a Latvian company which started its lending activities in 2019 first in Georgia, Russia, and Denmark, then in Spain and Poland (and more recently Romania).

The known subsidiaries of Wandoo Finance are :

Wandoo Romania news

The two most active markets are Spain and Poland, while the Romanian market was launched recently.

The Danish market seems to have stopped due to changes in national legislation, and the Georgian market seems to be non-existent, with no website listed (it can be found in the form of a mock-up on the Behance website).

For information, Wandoo Finance S.L.U., based in Madrid, Spain, has 28 employees and operates through two websites.

One under the Wandoo brand :

Wandoo finance Spain

The other under the trade name Avinto :

Wandoo Avinto Spain

The Polish subsidiary Wandoo Finance sp. z o.o., based in Warsaw, has around 20 employees and operates via a single website called Wandoo.

Wandoo Finance Poland

SW Finance OÜ

SW Finance OÜ, a 100% subsidiary of Swaper, is registered in Estonia and holds the necessary licensing from the Financia Intelligence Unit Estonia to offer business loans to investors.

Registered in July 2023, The purpose of this company is to raise funds for the Wandoo Finance Group to develop their business in Poland. Since 1/1/2024, Wandoo Finance Poland can no longer directly rely on P2P platforms to finance their operations.

Swaper referral ad

One Leasing

One Leasing is a vehicle leasing provider established in 2018 in the Republic of North Macedonia providing funding to individuals with average and above-average incomes to access ready-to-drive vehicles (One Leasing was previously a subsidiary of Mogo Finance).

One Leasing offers a ready-to-use vehicle and financing within 24 hours, thanks to a completely paperless procedure (License no. 13-449/4 issued by the Ministry of Finance of North Macedonia on 5 April 2018).

One Leasing is therefore offering to co-finance its lending activities (knowing that the company has 10% skin in the game) while providing a buyback guarantee. Investments benefit from returns of between 8% and 12% for periods of up to 48 months.

Partnership between One Leasing and Swaper

Investing on Swaper

Who can invest ?

To invest on Swaper, one needs to be at least 18 years old, to be a resident from a country located in the European Economic Area (EEA), and hold a bank account in one of the countries from this area.

It should also be noted that although they are part of the EEA, residents from Poland and Estonia are not accepted whereas Swiss and British residents can invest.

It is also possible to invest with Swaper by having a company located in European Economic Area (EEA) except Poland.

Person investing with a smartphone on Swaper

This is possible provided that the company complies with European anti-money laundering regulations and sends certain documents (commercial registration, owners identity, legal representatives,etc.).

Swaper investors come from all over Europe (27 EU member states, Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein). In decreasing order, here are the 5 countries that invest most in Swaper :

  • 🇩🇪 Germany
  • 🇪🇸 Spain
  • 🇫🇷 France
  • 🇮🇹 Italy
  • 🇳🇱 Netherlands

But although many different countries are represented on the platform, that is not reflected in the fact that only two languages are available : English and German.

Best P2P Lending platforms

What do we invest in ?

Swaper offers the opportunity to invest in three different types of loan with complementary characteristics, enabling two distinct types of investment strategy to be pursued depending on each investor’s objectives.

With the Wandoo Finance Group, it is possible to invest in short-term consumer loans (credit lines, payday loans) with a maximum term of 35 days and an amount of between €50 and €1,800. 

With Swaper Finance OÜ, investments are offered in business loans provided to the Wandoo Finance Group to scale up consumer loan portfolios ainly in Poland.

These investments offer a return of 14% to 16% and are covered by a buyback guarantee.

With One Leasing, we invest in financial leasing for vehicles secured by collateral for a maximum term of 48 months and a maximum amount of €15,000. Also covered by a buyback guarantee, these investments offer a return of 8 to 12%.

Swaper returns on investment

Where do we invest ?

Wandoo Finance Group offers to invest only in its two main markets, Poland and Spain (like other platforms such as PeerBerry and Lendermarket).

Their most active market is in Spain where Swaper offers to invest in consumer loans while it is now only possible to invest in Business loans in Poland.

One Leasing, on the other hand, is in a geographical sector that has been little explored by competing platforms, since the investments are made in Northern Macedonia, which allows Swaper to offer geographical diversity.

Swaper referral ad

Registration process

Creating an investor account on Swaper is certainly one of the easiest of the various P2P lending platforms tested. All you need to do is prepare some form of identification to complete the verification process, which takes less than 3 minutes.

During this registration, you will go through a Know-Your-Client (KYC) verification which is a mandatory process of identifying and verifying the client’s identity when opening an account. It will need to be renewed whenever the investor’s ID expires.

Once this verification process has been validated, investors can transfer funds to their account and start investing them based on their strategy. Contrary to other platforms like Debitum, Swaper does not offer manual investment but only auto-investment.

With international online banks such as Wise, it does not take more than 24 to 48 hours for investors’ funds to appear in their account. This service does not charge any fee for euro transfers and they also provide a free credit card that can be used worldwide.

Wise debit card

How to invest on Swaper ?

Investing on Swaper is very simple for several reasons: the characteristics of the investments offered are relatively similar, the platform’s interface is simple and intuitive, and last but not least, investment is fully automated.

Automatic investment

The platform offers a button marked “Invest manually”, which seems to indicate that it is possible to invest manually by selecting offers one by one, but no investor has ever seen an investment offered in this part of the site.

Swaper’s team explains that this is because the vast majority of investors are setting up Auto-Invest Portfolios. But this is also due to the fact that the supply of capital from investors is greater than the demand from loan originators.

Mobile app Swaper

Unlike Robocash, which assumes full automation of the investment process, Swaper lets us think that investors may choose their loans manually.

As a result, it is essential to create an Auto-Invest Portfolio that selects for us the offered investments corresponding to our criteria, which means defining :

  • interest rate
  • maximum investment per loan
  • Loan term in months
  • portfolio size
  • portfolio activation period
  • loan statuses
  • loan originators
  • country of investment
  • buyback guarantee

Investments made through this automated portfolio will be visible via the tab “My investments”, where key information specific to each loan is displayed. This is also where you can download the “Assignment agreement” for each loan.

Secondary market

Swaper had the good idea to introduce the possibility for investors to resell on a secondary market very soon after its inception, giving it a high level of liquidity when added to the 35-day investment term.

One positive aspect of this secondary market is that it is possible to resell without any fee, unlike on Mintos, for example.

In addition, tests have shown that sales on Swaper are not only intuitive, but can be completed in just a few hours.

Is it safe to invest on Swaper ?

Swaper is a platform that makes profits every year and has never had a single payment default since its inception in 2016, while guaranteeing the completeness of the investments listed. Despite this, Swaper relies heavily on Wandoo Finance Group, which needs to work on its business model and further diversify.

Healthy financial situation

Although we don’t have the data for 2017 and 2018, when Swaper was Latvian, we can see that since the platform was established in Estonia, the company’s revenues have risen steadily and are still generating profits, despite the Covid-19 crisis.

However, one point on which Swaper absolutely must improve is the publication date of its reports, which are always published very late after the other platforms.

To date, we have the following reports which have enabled us to build the graph below:

Swaper revenue and profit from 2019 to 2022

No payment default

One of the platform’s strengths is the total absence of defaults since its inception in 2016, even during the Covid-19 crisis or Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Swaper works like a metronome, smoothly and without a hitch, which is a real asset for investors looking to generate passive income.

Like other platforms such as Esketit, Swaper can extend the term of loans an unlimited number of times (Article 4.2.3 of the Assignment Agreement), but in practice, when this happens, it is a very limited number of times.

If the loan is not extended and the borrower is late in paying, then the buyback guarantee kicks in 60 days after the end of the loan (1 day for credit lines), during which time the investor remains remunerated at the rate at which he invested.

P2P platform

100% of loans guaranteed

One of the distinctive features of Swaper is to offer a buyback guarantee for all loans listed for investment, irrespective of whether they come from the Wandoo Finance Group or One Leasing, thus providing a uniform policy in this regard.

All investments are guaranteed by the loan originators, who undertake to buy back any investment that is more than 60 days overdue (1 day for credit lines).

Although this period was extended from 30 days to 60 days in 2021, it is still very appreciable to be able to recover your capital so quickly, especially as interest continues to be paid throughout this period when our funds are being used.

Referrals Just-P2P.com

Wandoo Financial situation

The fact that Wandoo Finance Group exclusively lists its investment opportunities on Swaper is a positive aspect for the platform, but that also means that the platform relies essentially on Wandoo (the proportion of One Leasing is unknown).

Yet, SIA Wandoo Finance’s financial situation has been up and down since its launch in 2016.

Numbers from their 2016 financial report show that their activities got off to a fast start, rapidly reaching financial break-even by the 2017 financial report. Subsequently, in 2018 and 2019, their sales and annual profit increased.

However, things changed with the coming of the Covid-19 crisis, which not only impacted their investment volumes but also pushed Wandoo to increase their investors’ returns (to the detriment of their financial balance).

Wandoo Linkedin

As a result, 2020 was a bad year for Wandoo business model and the group reduced its operating costs in 2021 in order to rebalance its financial situation which started to improve in 2022 with a much higher gross profit (which did not prevent a net loss) as we can see in their consolidated report.

The preliminary financial figures of their consolidated annual report for 2023 are very encouraging, showing clear growth in the activities of the Wandoo Finance Group.

Given the volumes of investment that transited through Swaper in 2023, ranging from €9M to €13M, this will certainly be Wandoo’s most profitable year. This should encourage a large number of investors to join the platform in 2024.

Invest with trust

No skin in the game with Wandoo

The usual practice of loan originators is to contribute 5% to 10%, or even more, to the funding of loans listed on the platforms. However, the companies in the Wandoo Finance Group do not offer any skin in the game (see the detailed loan factsheets).

The benefit for Wandoo Finance Group is to maximise leverage and avoid immobilising part of its capital, which would limit profits.

Investing alongside investors would give legitimacy to the borrower selection process, thereby boosting investors’ confidence. As things stand, however, it is impossible for Wandoo to release so much liquidity, which in turn would increase cash-drag.

However, it should be noted that in the case of One Leasing, the company invests up to 10% alongside investors in all the leasing projects it selects.

Skin in the game with Wandoo Finance group

Little diversification

An aspect on which Swaper has never really managed to progress is the diversification of investments listed, which has changed very little. The platform remains closely linked to the Wandoo Finance Group, not to say dependent.

Not only would we like to see Wandoo extend its geographical scope, but we would also like Swaper to encourage the arrival of new loan originators.

Geographic diversity has almost always been limited to Poland and Spain (loans from Denmark have never been offered). But the recent launch of a subsidiary in Romania could finally add to their offering on Swaper.

As for loan originators outside the Wandoo Finance Group, Swaper has only recently added a new player with One Leasing. In addition to its geographical diversity, this is a legal entity outside Wandoo with a long-term focus.

Swaper referral ad

Opinion on Swaper

Investors on Swaper appreciate the high returns (despite recurring cash drag) as well as the liquidity of its marketplace. However, they would still like Swaper to be more transparent and for the platform to improve its communications. But the main improvement they are waiting for remains loan diversification, despite rising volumes.

The great strength of Swaper is to offer returns on investments higher than the market average and this has been the case since its operational beginnings in 2017. The platform even had the audacity to raise its main rate from 12% to 14% in 2020 (16% above €25K).

Some investors will criticise the cash-drag, but this has fallen sharply in recent months, allowing the rates displayed to be optimised. Despite this, rates remain above the market average, which has been falling since early 2023.

Swaper opinion

But in addition to these attractive returns, the platform offers a very good level of liquidity, which is very attractive to investors looking for a rapid return on their investment, given the very short term of the loans and the limited extension policy.

With Swaper, you can place your money 30 days by 30 days, earn interest in a very short space of time, and then get your money back just as quickly. It’s made even simpler by the secondary market, where you can sell your investments free of charge.

Lastly, the fact that there has not been a single payment default despite a number of crises the world has experienced in recent years helps this platform to be trusted by a fair number of investors (while others criticise its lack of transparency).

Swaper experience

These investors particularly appreciate the ease of use of the platform, with its highly accessible settings that enable even beginner investors to quickly get to grips with the platform, which moreover works like a metronome.

Admittedly, Swaper’s communication is bland and ineffective, particularly on social networks and on its blog, but it cannot be accused of being a black box given that the platform publishes annual reports that are audited (admittedly by a small firm).

Globally, discussions about their communication policy and the presence of cash-drag are not so important. The main potential for improvement with Swaper lies in its diversification, which is one of the lowest in our ranking.

Best P2P lending platforms

This is definitely an area where the Estonian platform should be working to offer greater diversity in the number of loan originators and, consequently, in the geographical origin of the investments listed, even if a first step has been made with One Leasing.

A great deal of work has already been done in 2023 to pass the €10M invested per month mark on a sustainable basis, demonstrating Swaper’s full potential. So it’s a platform that’s going slowly, but one that certainly has a bright future in the P2P landscape.

Swaper platform for post

Thank you for reading this analysis.

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Comments are also welcome if you want to share your experience or ask a question to the team and to the other investors.

About the Author

Author picture

Silvère is an economist and IT engineer with numerous years of experience in business management, FinTech investment and digital marketing. He invests mainly in crowdlending especially P2P lending, P2B Lending, and real estate crowdfunding.

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