Posted by Switzerland-based crowdfunding platform Maclear has, against all expectations, now released at least some figures for the 2024 (!) financial year. Up front: My earlier criticisms continue to be confirmed. On top of that, there are also a few new and concrete warning signs. Here are the key findings.
On the formalities: According to the CFO’s letter, the report is “in the final stage of audit”. So, this is yet another audit announcement, just like the one in 2023 involving BlueAudit, which was never followed through. Once again, all that exists is a self-prepared, unaudited draft.
According to the figures, Maclear posted a net loss of CHF −122,941 in 2024. This reflects a similar loss level as for 2023 (CHF −118,379). Despite a capital increase of CHF 55,000, equity fell from CHF −19,085 to CHF −87,026. The CFO frames this as the “cost of growth”, whereas the balance sheet simply says: Negative equity, effectively balance-sheet over-indebtedness.
But it only gets really interesting now. According to Maclear, borrowers paid CHF 464,322 in interest. Investors, by contrast, received CHF 530,266 in interest plus CHF 297,583 in bonuses. The platform therefore pays investors around CHF 363,527 more than it collects from borrowers in interest, covering the gap from commission and onboarding fees. Normally, the interest charged to borrowers is higher than the interest paid to investors. This inversion, combined with cross-subsidization through a steady stream of new onboarding fees, is the profile of a model that only works as long as growth continues.
The wording that borrowers’ payment discipline does “not always exactly” match the schedule is a thinly veiled confirmation of payment delays. These are concerns I had already laid out in detail in my Maclear review.
The CFO also claims that borrowers hold assets to repay their loans. My research has shown that quite the opposite has been the case in the past (Transbaltika: Fixed assets of EUR 72,569, no truck purchased; Estlat: No tangible assets; TLMET: No plasma cutter). If loans are nevertheless “repaid” even though the debtors have neither revenue nor collateral, then the negative spread suggests that the funds come from new investor money and fees, rather than from the borrowers’ operating cash flow.
In this context, it also seems notable that Maclear has set aside a reserve of only CHF 195,456 for possible loan losses. That corresponds to just around 2% of the loan portfolio outstanding at the end of 2024. Given the inflated valuations and missing collateral documented across several projects, this coverage appears extremely low. Any impairment beyond the reserve would, however, further worsen the already negative equity.