For years, Afranga served as a funding source for the lending operations of the Stik Credit Group, an established and profitable fintech company from Bulgaria. In this setup, investors were reliably able to earn above-average returns of up to 16% in recent years.
However, with its licensing as a European crowdfunding service provider, Afranga has initiated an exciting transformation into a regulated P2P marketplace. Alongside the opportunities for expansion, revenue growth, and diversification, there are also bigger risks on the horizon for investors.
What these risks are in particular and how they can be assessed is one of the key topics covered in this Afranga review. In addition to the risks, the review also looks at the shareholder structure, the financial situation, and all investment-relevant aspects such as the loan offering, return expectations, and why there is no form of a buyback guarantee.
Remember that all the information that are covered in this Afranga review are based on my own research. Please make sure to do your own due diligence before investing on Afranga or any other platform. More information can be found in the Disclaimer.
Further analyses of other platforms can be found on my P2P Platform Review page.
Summary
Before we get started, here is a quick summary with the most important information about Afranga.
- Afranga is a Bulgaria-based P2P lending marketplace where investors can invest in international consumer loans while earning above-average returns of up to 16%.
- The P2P platform was launched in December 2020 by the Bulgarian company Stik-Credit JSC as a funding vehicle for its own lending business.
- In September 2023, Afranga received a license from the Bulgarian Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) to operate as a European Crowdfunding Service Provider (ECSP).
- By adding external lenders, Afranga transformed into a P2P marketplace in 2025.
- Within the P2P lending community, Afranga is considered an average platform. In the past three community votings, the platform consistently ranked in the middle of the pack.
| Founded / Started: | December 2020 / February 2021 |
| Legal Name: | Afranga EOOD (LINK) |
| Headquarter: | Sofia, Bulgaria |
| Regulated: | Yes (ECSP License) |
| CEO: | Svetlin Sabev (February 2021) |
| Community Voting: | P16 out of 30 | See Voting |
| Assets Under Management: | EUR 13+ Million |
| Number of Investors: | 1.000+ |
| Expected Return: | Up to 16% |
| Primary Loan Type: | Business Loans |
| Collateral: | Pledge |
| Bonus: | 0.5% Cashback for 90 Days |
About Afranga
Afranga is a Bulgaria-based P2P lending platform where investors primarily invest in business loans from a range of international loan originators, while earning above-average returns of up to 16%.
The P2P platform was originally launched in 2021 by the Bulgarian company Stik-Credit JSC as a funding tool for its own lending operations. Its origin story is therefore comparable to other P2P platforms such as Esketit (AvaFin Holding) or Lendermarket (Creditstar).
Since receiving its license under the European Crowdfunding Regulation (ECSP) in 2023, Afranga has been operating as an independent P2P platform. Nevertheless, its structure remains closely tied to Stik Credit. With the addition of external lenders, Afranga evolved into a P2P lending marketplace in 2025.
At its core, Afranga is characterized by competitive interest rates of up to 16%, regulatory compliance, and segregated investor accounts via Lemonway.
Ownership and Management
Who are the key shareholders behind the scenes? And which individuals are responsible for the operational management of the P2P platform? Let’s take a closer look in the following sections of my Afranga review.
Afranga Ownership
Who owns Afranga? The P2P platform is officially operated by the Bulgarian company “Afranga EOOD.” A look into the Bulgarian company register reveals that Svetlin Nikolov Sabev, CEO and founder of Afranga, is also the sole shareholder of the platform.
He is an experienced entrepreneur in the fintech sector who, among other things, has been working for Stik-Credit since 2018 and also co-founded Lendivo, the first new loan originator on Afranga.
Afranga Management
Here is a list of the key individuals leading Afranga’s operational management:
- Svetlin Sabev: A fintech entrepreneur with over a decade of experience in consumer finance. He is the COO of Stikcredit as well as the CEO and visionary behind Afranga.
- Yonko Chuklev: A senior executive specializing in compliance and finance. He brings more than 15 years of experience in corporate management, legal oversight, and financial administration.
- Veniamin Istomin: Joined the Afranga team in September 2024. Formerly Head of Business Development at Bondster. His core expertise lies in onboarding loan originators.
Business Model and Finances
Throughout the due diligence process, investors should also have a look at the business model of a P2P platform as well as the overall financial situation. How does the company earn money? Does the platform operate profitably? And how well is the company positioned financially? Find out more about those topics in the following paragraphs of this Afranga review.
Monetization
How does Afranga make money? Similar to other P2P lending marketplaces, Afranga primarily monetizes through brokerage fees charged to the loan originators. According to the Afranga price list, this fee can be as high as 10% per annum. The market average usually ranges between 2% and 3%.
Additionally, loan originators are charged a one-time fee of EUR 3,000 for the evaluation of a potential collaboration. Investors, on the other hand, do not incur any costs or fees. Neither for account maintenance, deposits, withdrawals, nor any other services.
Profitability
Afranga aims to become profitable and reach the breakeven point by the end of 2025 or during the first half of 2026. Since the platform only began operating under the ECSP regulation at the start of 2025, there are currently no annual financial statements available.
Because the P2P platform is still heavily controlled in the background by Stik Credit, it is worthwhile for investors to take a closer look at the financial metrics of that company instead. According to the 2024 financial figures, Stik Credit achieved a record profit of approximately EUR 3.5 million, thereby sustainably demonstrating the profitability of its business model.
The balance sheet of Stik Credit also looks very positive, indicating a financially healthy foundation for the company. The equity ratio stands at a strong 54%, the debt ratio at 0.85, and the liquidity ratio at 1.62.
Important to note are the increasing impairments for written-off loans, which most recently amounted to the equivalent of EUR 5.1 million and thus made up about one-third of the entire loan portfolio.
For comparison: in a conservatively managed consumer lending business, the default rate often falls within a range of 5% to 15%.
A rate of over 30% either indicates a very high-risk loan portfolio with many non-performing loans or a conservative accounting policy in which high provisions are made to cover potential defaults.
According to Stikcredit, the increase is partly due to growth in the past year, with around 30% more loans being financed compared to 2023, and partly due to the changed loan structure, which may be attributable to a higher proportion of short-term or riskier loans, which in turn has led to higher provisions.
Sign Up and Bonus
To register on Afranga, the following requirements must be met:
- Minimum age of 18 years
- Citizenship or residence in the European Economic Area (EEA)
- Citizenship or residence in Switzerland
The registration process is simple and intuitive. After opening an account using an email address, users must complete questionnaires for KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti-Money Laundering). This is followed by identity verification and providing the tax residency information.
Legal entities also have the option to register with Afranga. In this case, the company must be based in the EEA or Switzerland.
Afranga Bonus
Interested in investing with Afranga? By registering through my partner link, you can also get an additional cashback bonus. Investors receive a 0.5% cashback on all investments made within the first 90 days after successful registration.
A platform overview with all bonus offers and cashback promotions can be found on the bonus page.
Investing on Afranga
How does investing on Afranga work? What should you know, and what should you potentially watch out for? In the following sections, you’ll find a concise overview with all the essential information.
Loan Offering
In 2025, Afranga completed its transformation into a P2P marketplace. This means that loans are no longer funded solely by Stik Credit but also by external lenders. Below is a brief overview of the current loan originators on Afranga:
- Stik Credit: The Bulgarian lender is the unofficial mastermind behind Afranga. Founded in 2013 in Bulgaria, it is supervised by the Bulgarian National Bank. Since its inception, Stik Credit has established a sustainable and profitable business model in unsecured consumer loans, with more than EUR 30 million in loans financed. Loans on Afranga are offered with interest rates between 14% and 16%, with terms up to 36 months.
- Lendivo: Also based in Bulgaria, Lendivo was founded in April 2024 by a team from the Stik Credit group. Afranga’s CEO, Svetlin Sabev, was also involved as a co-founder. The fintech’s business model involves issuing installment loans of up to EUR 500 with terms of up to 30 days. On Afranga, these loans are offered with interest rates up to 11%.
- Swiss Funds: This Czech lender, founded in 2022, specializes in short-term consumer loans. On Afranga, these loans carry an average interest rate of 11%, with terms up to 18 months. The fintech company is licensed and supervised by the Czech National Bank and belongs to Orka Ventures Ltd, a holding company with lending businesses across Europe.
- Credirect: The third lender from Bulgaria was founded in 2017 and is part of the international financial group MV Finance LTD. Credirect offers short-term loans (payday loans) of up to EUR 700 as well as installment loans of up to EUR 5,100. On Afranga, the loans are offered with an average interest rate of 11%.
Costs and Fees
Investors on Afranga incur no costs or hidden fees. Neither for account maintenance, deposits, withdrawals, nor any other services. Unfortunately, this is no longer a given on many other P2P lending platforms.
Expected Returns
What returns can investors realistically expect on Afranga? Stik Credit typically offers interest rates between 14% and 16%, which is a few percentage points above the market average. The platform itself quotes an average return of 15.6%.
For the newer, externally added lenders, interest rates are somewhat lower, ranging from 10% to 12%.
Besides the interest rate, the key factors affecting the achievable return are the portfolio quality and the regularity of repayments from the loan originators. So far, no defaults have been reported, which means Afranga offers a very attractive return profile relative to the underlying risk.
Buyback Guarantee
Under the ESCP regulation, Afranga has shifted from consumer loan claims to corporate loans. These are direct loans granted by investors to the lending companies and are secured by the entire assets of the respective company.
In clear terms, this means the lending companies are fully responsible for repaying the loan with all their assets.
For this reason, the terms of the corporate loans are significantly longer (18 to 36 months) compared to the financed consumer loans, which only last a few months.
Auto Invest and Secondary Market
The Auto Invest feature as well as the secondary market are planned to be introduced during the course of 2025.
Afranga Forum
The P2P lending industry is a fast-moving environment. Hence, make sure to stay on top of all relevant information by subscribing to my channels on Telegram or WhatsApp. This way, you will always receive the latest information from the P2P industry, including platform news regarding Afranga.
Afranga Taxes
Interest income earned from loan financing is generally considered capital gains and must be declared as such in your tax return.
Investors should also note that interest earnings from investments through Afranga are usually subject to withholding tax. The withholding tax rates vary depending on the country where the lending company is based. For example, loans from Bulgaria are subject to a withholding tax rate of 10%
The applicable tax rate is automatically applied based on the lender’s country of origin. Therefore, the amount paid out corresponds to the net interest. Investors can view both the gross and net interest rates in the loan’s repayment schedule.
Through the main menu (Settings > Tax Certificates), investors can download their tax certificates for all previous calendar years.
Afranga Risks
Investors should take a close look at the potential risk factors when evaluating a P2P lending platform and consider them carefully before making an investment. What risks should one expect with Afranga, and how should they be assessed?
Platform Risk
The operational launch of the platform, operated by the Bulgarian company “Afranga EOOD,” took place in February 2021. In its domestic market, it is supervised and regulated by the Bulgarian Financial Supervision Commission (FSC).
In September 2023, the regulator also granted Afranga a license to operate as a service provider under the European Crowdfunding Regulation. This includes, among other requirements, the proper segregation of investor funds, protecting investors against potential misuse. For this purpose, Afranga partners with Lemonway, which provides individual IBAN accounts for investors.
This means that in the event Afranga ceases operations, investors would still have access to their funds and loan repayments could continue.
As a regulated P2P platform, Afranga must also meet high standards of compliance and transparency, which enhances the platform’s overall security. However, loan defaults or insolvencies of the issuers are not covered or protected by the regulation.
Deposit Insurance
The investments offered through Afranga are not covered by European deposit guarantee schemes (such as the Deposit Guarantee Directive 2014/49/EU). This means that – unlike traditional bank deposits – funds invested on Afranga are not insured or guaranteed by any national or European compensation scheme.
Accordingly, investors should be aware that the capital invested is subject to the risk of loss, that returns are not guaranteed, and that they may not recover the full amount originally invested.
However, the claims against the lending companies remain valid and can be enforced legally.
Lender Risk
Success on Afranga largely depends on the performance of its loan originators. So how does Afranga approach risk assessment in this regard?
- Legal Review: Verification of licensing, registration, and country-specific legal compliance.
- Reputation Check: Background checks on shareholders and key executives, including negative press screening as well as KYC/AML evaluations.
- Business Operations: Detailed analysis of the business model, management team, corporate governance, and internal control systems.
- Financial Analysis: Review of key financial performance indicators, the quality of the loan portfolio, and the credibility of the external auditor.
Following the assessment, financial covenants are defined. For example, the equity-to-debt ratio, interest coverage ratio (ICR), or liquidity reserves. In addition, loan originators are subject to ongoing monitoring (quarterly updates and random checks) to ensure a consistent level of creditworthiness.
Regardless of Afranga’s due diligence, investors should review the annual financial statements of the respective loan originators, which are published on the P2P platform. Below is a tabular overview with the current financial figures of each loan originator.
| Loan Originator | Year | Audited | Net Profit | Return / Assets | Equity / Assets | Debt / Equity | Liquidity Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stik-Credit JSC | 2024 | ZAHARINOVA NEXIA | EUR 3,48M | 13,9% | 54% | 0,85 | 1,62 |
| Credirect | 2024 | EUR 2,24M | 35,7% | 47,5% | 1,11 | 7,97 | |
| Swiss Funds | 2024 | EUR 37K | 2,6% | 38,4% | 1,60 | 2,13 | |
| Lendivo | 2024 | EUR 8K | 24,8% | 3,03 |
So far, no issues have been reported with external loan originators on Afranga.
Advantages and Disadvantages
In this section, I have listed the most important advantages and disadvantages of Afranga.
Advantages
- Regulation: Licensed under the new EU Crowdfunding Regulation (ECSP)
- Investor Funds: Legally supervised segregation of investor and company funds
- Expected Returns: Competitive interest rates in the P2P industry
- Losses: So far, no investor losses have occurred on the platform
Disadvantages
- Auto Invest: No option to invest funds automatically
- Diversification: Limited selection of different loan originators
- Withholding Tax: A 10% withholding tax is applied to retail investors
Afranga Alternatives
What are the alternatives to Afranga in the current P2P lending landscape?
Viainvest
Viainvest offers many parallels to Afranga. In both cases, these are regulated and licensed P2P platforms that were primarily established as financing sources for the lending business of their parent companies (in this case: VIA SMS Group). Additionally, both platforms focus mainly on unsecured consumer loans from the European Economic Area. More information can be found in my Viainvest Review.
Debitum Investments
Debitum Investments (formerly Debitum Network) is a Latvia-based P2P marketplace regulated by the local financial supervisory authority. What makes Debitum special is its unique positioning in the P2P lending space, as it is both regulated, follows a marketplace model, and offers buyback-guaranteed business loans. More information can be found in my Debitum Review.
Income Marketplace
Income Marketplace is an unregulated P2P marketplace based in Estonia. The platform, which launched operations in January 2021, markets itself with a range of innovative security features designed to better protect investors from problematic lenders. So far, investors have not suffered any losses on Income Marketplace. Additionally, many of the lenders featured on Income offer an attractive combination of high returns and high liquidity. More information about this Afranga alternative can be found in my Income Marketplace Review.
You can find other Afranga alternatives on the P2P Platform Comparison page.
Afranga Community Review
Within the P2P lending community, Afranga’s performance is generally rated as average, based on the results of the annual P2P Community Voting. Over the last three years, Afranga ranked 7th in 2023 with 3.56 points, 18th in 2024 with 2.54 points, and 16th in 2025 with 3.07 points.
Considering the platform’s relative obscurity, reflected in only 59 total reviews, this is a fairly acceptable outcome.
The Top 5 P2P platforms in 2025 were Viainvest, Debitum, Mintos, Swaper, and Income Marketplace.
Summary Afranga Review 2025
What is the preliminary conclusion of this Afranga review?
In its first years, Afranga was used exclusively as a tool to finance loans for the Stik Credit Group, an established and profitable fintech company from Bulgaria. This structure represented a calculable risk for investors, which was offered with above-average returns.
With the relaunch as a licensed and regulated crowdfunding company, Afranga has gained significant legal and operational security. Technical weaknesses, such as the absence of an Auto Invest feature and a secondary market, are expected to be resolved by the end of 2025.
The strategic expansion toward a broadly positioned P2P marketplace opens up new revenue and growth opportunities for Afranga but also increases the risks for investors. While Afranga has a close personal and structural connection to Stik Credit, comprehensive control over external third-party lenders is considerably more difficult to implement. Therefore, investors should examine each lender very carefully.
Whether investing in business loans on Afranga is worthwhile for investors primarily depends on their personal strategy and risk tolerance. Those looking for a regulated P2P platform outside the Baltics, with a solid track record and above-average returns, should consider Afranga as a potential alternative.
Personally, I have established an initial position of EUR 3,000, investing exclusively in assets from Stik Credit. While the loan terms are slightly too long for my personal preference, I receive above-average interest rates in return, which I consider a good compromise for such a profitable and well-established fintech company.
I’m Denny Neidhardt, the founder of re:think P2P. On this blog, I help retail investors make smarter, well-informed investment decisions in the world of P2P lending. Since 2019, I’ve been publishing in-depth analyses, platform reviews, and risk assessments to bring more transparency to this investment space. My goal is to challenge marketing claims, question developments, and empower investors with honest, independent insights.