Maclear is a Switzerland-based crowdfunding platform that offers above-average interest business loans from the Baltic region. Is it worth investing? What risks should investors be aware of?
All relevant information, including a detailed risk assessment, can be found in my Maclear review below.
All the information that are covered in this Maclear review are based on my own research. Please make sure to do your own due diligence before investing on this 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 Maclear.
- Maclear is a crowdfunding platform based in Switzerland. On the platform, investors can fund international business loans, while achieving promoted returns of up to 15.6%.
- The operational launch of the platform took place in May 2023. Hence, Maclear is among the younger and less experienced platforms in the P2P lending environment.
- So far, no defaults have been reported, which speaks in favour of the platform’s good risk management.
- Investors can access their funds quicker by selling their loans on the secondary market.
| Founded / Started: | August 2020 / May 2023 |
| Legal Name: | Maclear AG (LINK) |
| Headquarter: | Wallisellen, Switzerland |
| Regulated: | Yes (Self Regulatory Organization) |
| CEO: | Denis Ustjev (August 2020) |
| Community Voting: | P11 out of 30 | See Voting |
| Assets Under Management: | EUR 31+ Million |
| Number of Investors: | 16.000+ |
| Expected Return: | 15,6% |
| Primary Loan Type: | Business Loans |
| Bonus: | 1,5% Cashback for 90 Days |
About Maclear
Maclear is a Switzerland-based crowdfunding platform where investors can invest in international business loans, achieving above-average returns of up to 15.6%.
Operational since May 2023, Maclear is still one of the younger and less experienced platforms in the P2P lending space.
What stands out about the platform is its Swiss jurisdiction. Neither the shareholders have ties to Switzerland, nor do the projects or borrowers originate there. The operational activities are managed from the Baltics as well. Hence, the jurisdiction appears to be a strategic choice, likely aimed at circumventing potential regulations under the European Crowdfunding Service Provider (ECSP) framework. More details can be found in this Maclear review.
Ownership and Management
Who are the main shareholders and management executives behind Maclear? Let’s have a look!
Ownership
Maclear AG was originally founded on May 11, 2010. At the time, the company operated in the GRC software sector (Governance, Risk, Compliance). In 2020, the company was acquired by the two business partners Aleksandr Nikitin and Denis Ustjev, who each hold 50% of the shares in the Swiss company.
Maclear Management
Denis Ustjev is the CEO of the Maclear P2P platform.
He has several years of experiences in the international banking sector, where he e.g. has worked in management consultancy.
He originally came up with the idea of a Swiss crowdlending platform. He has been CEO of Maclear’s operational activities since August 2020.
Business Model and Finances
Throughout the process of due diligence, 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? In the following paragraphs of this Maclear review, you can follow-up on those questions.
Monetization
How does Maclear earn money? Maclear monetises itself primarily through a brokerage fee, which is charged to borrowers when a project is successfully financed. This fee can be between 5% and 6% of the financed loan amount.
Other sources of income include fees charged for services provided to various business customers (management consulting, expert opinions, risk assessment, market research, etc.).
Profitability
Maclear is currently not yet profitable. According to the unaudited financial statements for 2023, the company posted a loss of 118,379 CHF. Not reaching the break-even point in the first year of operations is not inherently a problem.
What is questionable, however, is why the financial report was only shared in June 2025 in the Maclear Telegram group and not made publicly accessible. The file name also suggests that the report—which was not externally audited—was actually created on April 17, 2024.
Originally, Maclear AG had communicated that the financial report was to be audited by BlueAudit.
Sign Up and Bonus
Investors must fulfil two requirements to be able to invest on Maclear: A minimum age of 18 years and a residency in the European Economic Area (EEA).
Overall, the registration on the Maclear website is fairly simple and intuitive. After opening an account via email, the KYC (Know-Your-Customer) and AML (Anti-Money-Laundering) questionnaires must be completed. This is followed by verification of identity and details of tax residence.
Also legal entities have the opportunity to sign up on the Maclear website.
Maclear Bonus
If you consider signing up on Maclear, you can get a 1.5% cashback bonus on all investments made in the first 90 days if ou use this bonus link.
A cross-platform overview with all bonus offers and cashback promotions can be found by investors on the bonus page.
Investing on Maclear
How does investing on Maclear work? What should you look out for in terms of loan collateral and what returns can you expect? In the following sections of this Maclear review you will find all details and answers to these questions.
Loan Offering
Maclear offers collateralised business loans on its platform. These are primarily from the manufacturing, retail and service sectors.
According to the management, the ratio of loan amount to collateral is on average between 75% and 90%. An official loan-to-value ratio is not specified for Maclear loans though.
The average loan amount on Maclear is between EUR 100,000 and EUR 150,000, while the loan term is often between 9 and 12 months. To invest in a loan on Maclear, there is a minimum investment amount of EUR 50 per loan.
Costs and Fees
Investors can register and create an account on Maclear free of charge. There are also no costs or hidden fees for investing in business loans on Maclear and neither for deposits or withdrawals.
Expected Returns
Maclear offers above-average interest rates on its P2P lending platform. These typically range between 13% and 16%, with some loans occasionally offered at up to 19.5%.
Officially, the P2P platform advertises an expected return of up to 15.6%.
Whether this expected return is realistic will only become clear over a longer investment horizon and with increasing loan defaults.
Auto Invest
On Maclear, investors have the option to invest in business loans both manually and automatically via Auto Invest.
The Auto Invest feature, introduced in July 2025, allows investors to automate their investments by setting up an individual strategy based on their preferences (country, risk, interest rate). The system then automatically invests as soon as suitable projects become available.
Available filters include: investment amount (minimum EUR 50), interest rate (from 12%), loan term, risk score (AAA to D), borrower countries, and project type.
Important: Currently, the Auto Invest function on Maclear is only available to investors who have completed both proof of address (POA) and “Form A.” These steps are required to fully activate the investment functionality and to comply with Swiss regulations.
Secondary Market
The secondary market, on the other hand, was introduced in May 2024. With the secondary market, investors can sell their loans prior maturity, for which they need to pay a transaction fee of 2.5% though. As for the buyer, no costs or fees apply.
Maclear 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 Maclear.
Maclear Taxes
The interest income generated by loan financing is considered investment income and thus must be declared as such in the tax return.
Maclear does currently not withhold any taxes.
A special report for tax returns is not yet available. Instead, investors must download their documents manually via the “Account statement” tab.
Maclear Risks
When evaluating a P2P platform, investors should take a very close look at the potential risk factors. What should you look out for at Maclear? What are the risks and how can they be assessed?
Platform Risk
The Maclear P2P platform is operated by the Swiss company “Maclear AG” and is overseen by the General Self-Regulatory Organisation PolyReg. This is a FINMA-recognized self-regulatory organization (SRO) under Article 24 of the Swiss Anti-Money Laundering Act. In short, the organization supervises financial intermediaries that are members of the SRO.
PolyReg is generally regarded as reputable and regulatorily solid, with clear integration into the FINMA-controlled anti-money laundering system. In terms of effectiveness, PolyReg primarily monitors compliance with due diligence obligations under the Anti-Money Laundering Act (ID requirements, suspicious activity reports, documentation, etc.), but not financial market stability or investor protection. Therefore, it cannot be compared to a traditional financial supervisory authority responsible for risk oversight.
Hence, it is worth questioning why Maclear chose a Swiss jurisdiction.
Neither of the shareholders has a connection to Switzerland, no projects are offered from Switzerland, and operational activities are managed from the Baltics.
This raises the suspicion that the location was strategically chosen to circumvent potential regulations under the European Crowdfunding Service Provider Regulation (ECSP). Since Switzerland is not an EU member state, the Maclear platform does not fall under the ECSP regulation.
Deposit Insurance
The investments offered through Maclear are not covered by European deposit insurance schemes (such as the Deposit Guarantee Directive 2014/49/EU). This means that—unlike traditional bank deposits—the funds invested on Maclear are not insured or guaranteed by any national or European compensation system.
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.
Risk Management
Maclear has a multi-stage process for selecting suitable borrowers. This can be roughly divided into the following steps:
- Submission of Documents: Firstly, potential borrowers must complete a due diligence questionnaire and submit all the necessary documents. This takes into account the legal, commercial and financial aspects.
- Due Diligence: Maclear then carries out an internal creditworthiness check based on best practices from the banking and finance sector. External data sources are also used to check the shareholders, the project team and the key financial figures.
- Risk Assessment: As soon as the risk assessment has taken place, the borrower is assigned a risk rating. In future, this will also be listed transparently on the website so that the strengths and weaknesses of each loan can be better viewed and evaluated.
- Negotiations: Based on the risk assessment, negotiations take place with regard to the loan amount and the collateral and guarantees to be provided.
- Financing: Once the contracts have been signed, the project is placed on the platform for financing. If the borrower provides all the necessary documents from the outset, the entire process can be completed in just 3 days.
A large proportion of the loans come from the personal network of the two Estonian Maclear shareholders. With regard to possible conflicts of interest, the P2P platform stated that the Maclear founders are not allowed to be shareholders on the borrower side and that there is no favouritism towards projects where there is a relationship with the founders.
In my podcast, I spoke to Dimitri Timoshkin (CPO) and Daria (CRO) about Maclear’s risk management approach.
In our discussion we covered the following topics:
- The risk assessment process for borrowers, including no-go criteria
- Geographical focus and origin of borrowers
- Guidelines for conflicts of interest
- Collateralisation of loans and collateral values
- Advantages compared to commercial loans from banks
- Functionality of the provision fund
Defaults
A consistent and systematic approach is essential when assessing risk. But how well does Maclear’s performance hold up in practice? Do the numbers allow for a positive conclusion regarding risk assessment?
So far, the P2P platform has not published any performance-relevant data on the development of its outstanding loan portfolio. A statistics page with a detailed break-down is still missing to date.
On the homepage, it is stated that there have been no late loans or defaults to date.
Provision Fund
Maclear has introduced a provision fund to compensate for possible delays in loan repayments. This is intended to cover recurring interest payments to investors that arise in the event of temporary payment delays.
According to the P2P platform, 2% of the brokerage fee is used for the provision fund.
Should a collection process be initiated after 60 days of non-payment, the reserve fund is no guarantee for the full repayment of outstanding funds.
“If Maclear is unable to collect the outstanding amount and such amount is not covered by the provision fund, then any collected amount will be distributed among the Investors on a pro-rated basis.”
Advantages and Disadvantages
In this section I have listed the most important advantages and disadvantages of Maclear.
Advantages
- Regulation: Maclear is a member of the Swiss self-regulatory organization PolyReg.
- Interest Rates: The projects offer above-average returns.
- Due Diligence: No loan defaults have occurred so far.
- Liquidity: Loans can be sold early via secondary market.
- Auto Invest: Automated option to invest in loans.
Disadvantages
- Track Record: Maclear has only been operating since May 2023.
- Profitability: The platform is new to the market and therefore not yet profitable.
- Transparency: Lacking performance data for outstanding loan portfolio.
- Jurisdiction: Based in Switzerland, possibly to avoid EU crowdfunding regulation.
Maclear Alternatives
Maclear finances business loans in the Baltic States. In this regard, Crowdestor would be a similar Maclear alternative to consider. Given the bad portfolio quality of Crowdestor, the platform shouldn’t be considered at this point in time. Instead, Debitum Investments seems a much better option. Although Debitum is following a different business model, the focus on business loans from SMEs remains the same.
Debitum Investments
Debitum Investments (formerly Debitum Network) is a P2P marketplace based in Latvia and regulated by the local financial supervisory authority. What makes Debitum special is its unique positioning in the P2P lending environment, as it is regulated, follows a marketplace model and offers buyback-secured business loans. A combination that cannot be found in this particular form on any other P2P platform. Additional information can be found in my Debitum review.
You can find other Maclear alternatives on the P2P Platform Comparison page.
Community Feedback
Maclear’s reputation within the P2P lending community is being viewed increasingly positively, based on the results of the annual P2P community voting. While Maclear ranked 20th with 2.36 points in 2024, it had already reached 11th place with 3.32 points in 2025. This result even put it on par with Bondora and INDEMO.
The Top 5 P2P platforms in 2025 were Viainvest, Debitum, Mintos, Swaper, and Income Marketplace.
Summary Maclear Review 2025
What is the verdict of this Maclear review?
Maclear is a young and emerging crowdfunding platform based in Switzerland.
What makes Maclear appear attractive is the high interest rate on the offered business loans. However, whether this high return promise can actually be fulfilled in the future will largely depend on the platform’s risk management and its ability to deal with potential defaults. The true performance will only become evident as the platform continues to grow.
The poor past performance of Crowdestor is a good example of why investors should remain very cautious in this segment. That said, Maclear has so far not reported any loan defaults in its portfolio.
The choice of Switzerland as jurisdiction is questionable, as most likely this was made to circumvent the European Crowdfunding Regulation. Transparency standards regarding both the financial situation and portfolio quality could also be significantly improved.
For investors with a strong risk appetite who want exposure to Baltic business loans, Maclear may be worth a try. More conservative investors, however, will prefer to wait and see how the platform develops further.
FAQ Maclear Review
Maclear is a Swiss-based and regulated crowdfunding platform where investors can invest in international business loans, while achieving a promoted return of up to 14.9%.
The founders of Maclear AG are Aleksandr Nikitin and Denis Ustjev. Both business partner each own 50% of the Swiss company.
Investors can register and create an account on Maclear free of charge. There are also no costs or hidden fees for investing in business loans on Maclear and neither for deposits or withdrawals.
Maclear offers above-average interest rates on its P2P lending platform. The interest rates are often in a range between 13% and 16%. Occasionally, loans of up to 19.5% have also been offered. The average expected return is stated by Maclear with 14.9%. Whether this expected return is realistic will only become clear over a longer investment horizon and with increasing loan defaults.
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.