Posted by Decreasing interest rates, a stagnating portfolio and plenty of cash drag for investors: Measured against the standards and expectations that surround PeerBerry, 2025 was an average year at best. My annual rating reflected that, awarding only 8 out of a possible 15 points.
For a long time, the signs that 2026 would turn out any better did not look promising. In June 2025, Aventus Group CEO Andrejus Trofimovas explained that most loan originators were profitable enough to rely only marginally on external funding. He also noted that many markets were becoming saturated and that growth was slowly approaching its natural limits.
“Our profitability is high enough for most of our companies to develop their business further without external funding or with limited funding. The second reason for the limited borrowing needs is the maturity of many of our companies – when the company reaches a certain level of growth, it cannot grow further at a similar pace as in the first years of business – each market has its own limits.”
But with the November 2025 announcement that the group was targeting 20% portfolio growth in the first half of 2026 and planning to expand into countries such as Brazil, Australia, Argentina, Peru and Canada, the outlook shifted once again.
In this article, I look at how my personal PeerBerry portfolio has developed over the past five years, and what Aventus founder Andrejus Trofimovas had to say about the group’s growth strategy, its market selection for the expansion, and the financial stability underpinning the group guarantee.
You can find a detailed platform analysis in my PeerBerry review.
My PeerBerry Portfolio 2026
My personal investment journey with PeerBerry began in June 2021, exactly five years ago. What drew me in back then was the impressive speed with which the marketplace recovered from the coronavirus pandemic, and how professionally the platform managed that period.
Today, five years on, my portfolio value at PeerBerry has climbed above EUR 50,000 for the first time. Against EUR 40,000 in deposits stand EUR 3,000 in withdrawals, which works out to a net deposit position of EUR 37,000.
That means I have already earned more than EUR 13,000 in interest on PeerBerry over the past few years. The amount shown in the chart is slightly lower, as I initially held a personal account during the first year. This was later replaced by a business account, meaning that part of the historical data is not reflected in the current chart.
My overall return on the platform is well below my peak (September 2023; 13.07%), but at 11.43% it still displays an overall strong performance.
Two things are paying off here: First, that I kept investing even through volatile phases (the war in Ukraine), so I was able to lock in higher rates as a result; and second, my Platinum status in the loyalty program, which earns me an additional 1% on top.
Aventus Group: Growth and Expansion 2026
At the end of May 2026, PeerBerry managed an investor portfolio of EUR 126.5 million. Around EUR 10 million more than at the start of the year. Relative to the overall size of the marketplace, that growth of roughly EUR 2 million per month represents a steady pace.
The main driver behind this growth is the Aventus Group, which at around EUR 55 million accounts for roughly 41% of the portfolio on the PeerBerry marketplace. To understand how this growth comes about and how the group is positioned for its next phase of expansion, I spoke with Aventus founder and CEO Andrejus Trofimovas.
Expansion is Driving Loan Supply
Just a year ago, in June 2025, the Aventus chief had explained that most of the group’s companies were profitable enough to rely only marginally on external funding.
The fact that loan supply on PeerBerry has risen sharply again in 2026 only appears to contradict this at first glance. Asked what had changed in the group’s funding strategy, he gave the following answer:
“Our overall funding strategy has not fundamentally changed. What has changed is the scale of our business and the pace of our expansion.”
According to him, the core of the Aventus Group remains highly profitable, which is why a substantial share of its growth continues to be financed from ongoing cash flow. The additional funding need, by contrast, arises from new markets and products.
This momentum is also clearly reflected in the figures he shared during our exchange. According to him, the Aventus Group had already issued loans worth EUR 690 million in the first five months of 2026 – 30% more than in the same period a year earlier. In May 2026 alone, the issued volume rose by 46% year-on-year to EUR 158 million.
The 20% portfolio growth target originally communicated for the first half of 2026 was not directly confirmed by Trofimovas, as he answered the growth question via loan volumes instead. The increases he cited nonetheless speak a clear language about the pick-up in business activity.
Market Selection and New Loan Originators
The Aventus Group’s expansion is broad-based, as the steady stream of announcements on the PeerBerry blog shows. In recent months, new loan originators have joined from Spain (March 2026), Argentina and Peru (April 2026) and Australia (May 2026). Brazil has also already been announced as a new market for 2026 (see announcement).
Trofimovas describes the criteria for selecting these markets as a data-driven process: Market size and long-term growth potential come first, followed by the maturity of the market (level of digitalization, financial inclusion, competition) and the regulatory environment.
“We prefer markets where the rules are clear and support the sustainable development of responsible financial services.”
At the same time, the CEO stressed that the goal is not to expand into as many countries as possible, but to build and establish sustainable, viable business models.
A welcome development from an investor’s perspective: To support growth in the new lending markets, interest rates have recently increased again. Here is a selection of the new adjustments, effective 3 June 2026:
- SmartCredito (Spain): 10% (+1%)
- RealCredito (Spain): 10% (+1%)
- Lendi (Argentina): 10% (+1%)
- Prestamo365 (Peru): 10% (+1%)
- Credito365 (Mexico): 10% (+1%)
- Credito365 (Colombia): 10% (+1%)
After years of declining rates on PeerBerry, the prospect of a double-digit overall return now appears considerably more realistic again for many investors.
Financial Stability and Group Guarantee
New loan originators inevitably bring higher risk over time. What does that mean for the advertised buyback and group guarantee?
As always with questions like these, the financial strength of the guarantor is decisive. In case of the Aventus Group, the company appears to be in better shape than ever before: In 2025, the group communicated a profit of EUR 95.7 million (10% more than the previous year), with an equity position of EUR 226 million.
Asked how the geographic expansion affects the resilience of the group guarantee, Trofimovas argued that diversification strengthens the guarantee even further. The broader the business is spread, the lower its dependence on any single market. As evidence, he pointed to the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, when a significant part of the group’s business was directly affected.
“[…] because Aventus Group had already built a diversified international business across multiple countries, we were able to fully meet our obligations to investors and repay all war-affected liabilities, which amounted to tens of millions of euros.”
Diversification, in his view, is therefore not only a growth driver but also an enabler for stronger risk management. One could, however, critically note that rapid expansion into numerous young emerging markets initially brings new and largely untested risk into the group as well. The resilience of the group guarantee therefore stands and falls less with individual markets rather than with the group’s sustained profitability and equity buffer.
Conclusion: Where is PeerBerry Headed?
PeerBerry has been a firm anchor for five years now, and since September 2022 it has also been the largest position in my P2P portfolio. Currently, I can’t imagine that ever being any different.
The impressive portfolio quality in recent years, the outstanding crisis management and the platform’s integrity toward its investors base have rightly made PeerBerry one of the largest P2P platforms in Europe.
Looking at it from the outside, the absence of regulation and the lack of consolidated financial statements remain the biggest unresolved concerns. Every investor has to assess and weigh this risk for themselves. For me personally, the years-long track record of PeerBerry and its partners has so far outweighed this risk.
As long as loan supply remains stable and interest rates don’t collapse, PeerBerry will hopefully remain a fixed anchor in my P2P allocation for the next years to come.
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.