PeerBerry Review: Top 3 P2P Platform in 2023!

In recent years, PeerBerry has become one of the largest platforms in the P2P environment. More than 66,000 investors have already registered with the platform and financed more than €1.6 B in loans since its launch in November 2017.

The trust of many investors derives from the reliability of the platform, which has emerged stronger from crisis situations than almost any other platform. Due to its attractive risk-reward profile, PeerBerry has been the largest position of my personal P2P portfolio for quite some time now.

Nevertheless, there are some crucial risk elements that investors need to be aware of before investing on the Croatian marketplace. Further explanations can be found within this extensive PeerBerry review.

All the information that are covered in this PeerBerry review are based on my own personal experiences with the platform for the past 4+ years. Please make sure to do your own due diligence before investing on any platform. More information can be found in the Disclaimer.

Further analyses of other platforms can be found on my P2P Platform Review page.

Last Update: May 2023

PeerBerry Overview

Before we get started, here is a quick summary with the most important information about PeerBerry.

About PeerBerry

PeerBerry is a Croatian P2P marketplace with Lithuanian roots, where investors can take advantage from a variety of international consumer loans while earning a return of up to +12.5%.

The platform started operations in November 2017 and hence belongs to the more experienced and established players in the market. Considering the total financed loan volume, which exceeded the €1 B mark in 2022, the marketplace is currently one of the largest and fastest growing P2P platforms in Europe.

The Origin Story

PeerBerry is holding close ties to Aventus Group, a company founded in 2009. Within Aventus are currently 12 international non-bank lending companies that primarily finance short-term and unsecured consumer loans. The majority of them are located in Europe.

In order to access cheaper as well as a broader range of funding sources for their lending operations, Aventus founded the PeerBerry platform back in 2017.

In the early stages, the development of PeerBerry was significantly supported by Aušra Čiuplienė (picture) who was the CEO of the platform from September 2017 to January 2019. A year earlier, she had already worked as Chief Risk Officer at the Aventus Group. In an interview from July 2019, Aušra was talking about the early years of building up and growing the PeerBerry platform.

Who owns PeerBerry?

PeerBerry is owned by three different shareholders. 50% of the shares are held by Andrejus Trofimovas who is also CEO of the Aventus Group. The other 50% are shared equally by the two Lithuanian private investors Vytautas Olšauskas and Ivan Butov.

PeerBerry Management

Arunas Lekavicius has been CEO of the PeerBerry platform since January 2019. In his time before PeerBerry, he worked for nearly four years at 4finance, one of the largest non-bank lenders in Europe. 

Further information about the team members can be found on this page.

Business Model & 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 PeerBerry review, you can follow-up on those questions.

How does PeerBerry earn money?

PeerBerry is earning money primarily through fees and commission income. These are paid by the lenders that offer their loans for funding on the marketplace. The commission fee can range from 1% to 5%. The exact commission depends on the quality of the lender and its loan portfolio.

In 2021, PeerBerry was able to generate €3.69 M in revenue.

Is PeerBerry profitable?

Yes, PeerBerry is profitable. According to the annual report for 2022, the platform was able to achieve a record profit of €663,455. Despite the difficult circumstances due to the war in Ukraine, the platform finished the fifth year in a row with a profitable business result.

But as in recent years as well, investors should keep in mind that PeerBerry doesn’t publish financial reports that are audited and that are neither prepared in accordance with IFRS standards. 

Sign Up and Bonus

To invest on PeerBerry, investors must meet three requirements:

• A minimum age of 18 years,
• a residence in the European Economic Area
• and a European bank account.

The sign-up process is fairly simple and intuitive. After opening the account via email, the KYC (Know-Your-Customer) and AML (Anti-Money-Laundering) questionnaires must be completed. This is followed by the verification of the identity and the confirmation of the tax residence.

Also legal entities have the opportunity to sign up on PeerBerry.

Bonus for New Investors

If you want to invest on PeerBerry, you will receive a cashback bonus of 0.5% if you register via this link.

Investing on PeerBerry

How does PeerBerry work and what should investors know and consider when investing on the plaform? In the following sections of my PeerBerry review you will find all the necessary information that you need.

Loan Offering on PeerBerry

PeerBerry promotes four different lender groups on its marketplace: Aventus Group, Gofingo, Lithome and SIBgroup.

Through these lenders, investors have the opportunity to invest in five different types of loans: Short-term consumer loans (up to max. 30 days), long-term consumer loans, real estate loans, leasing loans and business loans.

The geographic focus of the lenders is very international. Thus, investors have the opportunity to invest in borrower countries such as Czech Republic, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Poland, Sri Lanka, Vietnam or Spain, among others.

With the outbreak of war in Ukraine, lending companies from both Russia and Ukraine have been temporarily suspended.

Costs and Fees

Currently, there are no costs or hidden fees for investors at PeerBerry. Neither for deposits or withdrawals. Also investing on the platform is free of charge.

Expected Returns on PeerBerry

PeerBerry is currently promoting a return of up to 12.5% on its homepage. Investors should take notice that the interest rates on PeerBerry can be adjusted depending on the market environment and lender needs. 

My personal PeerBerry return, after two years of investing, is 12.79%. Both the additional bonus through the loyalty program as well as the above-average interest paid throughout the last year have helped to push the return this far. 

Through the loyalty program, investors have the opportunity to receive additional cashback depending on the amount invested:

• Silver: 0.5% Cashback for outstanding investment portfolio > €10,000
• Gold: 0.75% Cashback for outstanding investment portfolio > €25,000
• Platinum: 1% Cashback for outstanding investment portfolio > €40,000

Auto Invest

On PeerBerry, investors have a chance to invest in loans manually as well as through an Auto Invest. 

The PeerBerry Auto Invest allows investors to select individual lenders as well as borrower countries, loan terms, interest rates, investment amount, loan type or the buyback guarantee option.

The minimum investment amount per loan is currently €10, which is common practice for most consumer loan focused platforms. 

A secondary market, which would offer additional liquidity for investors, is currently not available.

PeerBerry Buyback Guarantee

PeerBerry, among other platforms, also offer a buyback guarantee. In this case, loans are repurchased by the respective lenders in the event of loans being 60+ days late for repayment. In addition, some lenders also offer an additional group guarantee as a liability option.

The PeerBerry T&C make it clear that PeerBerry doesn’t cover for any liability that is offered or promoted by their lending companies.

The User is aware of the risk of default on Borrower’s obligations, as a result of which the User might not fully recover the Claim. The Loan Originator will perform all the necessary and allowed actions to facilitate timely and full recovery of the Claim without an involvement of the User. In event of the Borrower’s default, PeerBerry and the Loan Originator shall not assume the responsibility for the security of the Claim.

PeerBerry App

If you want, you can also use the mobile app from PeerBerry. The PeerBerry App was launched in 2021 and can be downloaded from the operating systems iOS (App Store) or Android (Play Store).

PeerBerry Forum

If you have questions about PeerBerry, other platforms or different p2p-related topics, you can join the re:think P2P Community on Facebook and engage in discussions with more than 1,000 other private retail investors.

PeerBerry Taxes

Generally, interest income generated by loan financing is considered investment income and must be reported as such on the tax declaration.

Unlike other platforms, PeerBerry does not withhold taxes through interest income such as in Latvia or Lithuania.

Through the dashboard, investors can download an extract of the tax report for the given year, where the corresponding income is listed.

PeerBerry Risks

Investors should look very carefully at the potential risk factors when evaluating a P2P platform. What is it that investors need to be aware of when it comes to PeerBerry? Where are the underlying risks and how are they assessed?

Something that clearly stands out is that the platform seems very good at handling crisis situations, which make the marketplace emerge even stronger.

Corona Crisis / Covid-19 Pandemic

12 months after the global Covid-19 pandemic hit, PeerBerry has to be seen as one of the big beneficiaries, since the outstanding portfolio amount has more than doubled since March 2020.

PeerBerry has performed according to it promises and delivered a very stable and reliable performance throughout all the time, whereas many competitors have struggled to deal with a steady cashflow. There have been no delays in payments, defaults or other inconveniences for investors. Instead, PeerBerry delivered was straight forward communication on how the situation would be handled and what investors could expect.

When necessary, lenders have repurchased late loans in a timely and reliable manner. Aventus Group, by far the biggest lender on the marketplace, even generated a net profit of €10 M in 2020 despite difficult market conditions.

War in Ukraine

The war in Ukraine has had a massive impact on PeerBerry. A total of 12 lenders on PeerBerry have been affected by the war in Ukraine and the sanctions against Russia. The outstanding loan portfolio in Russia and Ukraine, at the time of the outbreak of the war, amounted to approximately € 50 M.

PeerBerry has communicated that the primary goal is that investors will not suffer any capital losses. In the initial planning, the platform assumed that the outstanding receivables, of the loans affected by the war, would be repaid in full within 24 months. In February 2023, one year after the start of the war €33 M, or 66% of all outstanding claims, have already been repaid to investors.

Is PeerBerry Safe?

In general, PeerBerry can be seen as a safe P2P platform, although there is still potential for more transparency and security.

On one hand, the annual reports are not audited by a major auditor, nor are they reviewed in accordance with IFRS standards. On the other hand, the non-regulated platform operations should be reviewed as well. PeerBerry cites that, unlike the EU crowdfunding regulation, there is no EU-wide regulation for online P2P marketplace lending.

Although this is a correct statement, PeerBerry also had the choice of operating in a regulated environment in Latvia – which was ultimately refused. PeerBerry looks on regulation as a trade-off between the costs incurred and the actual value added for investors. Since PeerBerry has delivered impeccably so far, the few flaws seem to be tolerable for investors.

Pros & Cons

In this section I have listed the most important advantages and disadvantages of PeerBerry.

Advantages

• Track Record: PeerBerry has now been in the market for 5+ years, while funding €1.5 B loans during that time.
• Strong Lenders: The platform collaborates with big, established and profitable non-bank lending companies.
• Crisis-Proven: No matter Corona pandemic or the war in Ukraine, PeerBerry has showcased very good crisis management, which enabled them to emerge even stronger.
• Risk Management: PeerBerry has implemented several rules to ensure a good performance on the platform. Lenders can for instance only offer max. 45% of their loan portfolio on P2P platforms. Also, a liquidity reserve of 10% of the loan book value must be formed to immediately service loan defaults if necessary.
• Clean Slate: So far, no payment delays nor investment losses have occured on the platform.
• Liquidity: Due to the majority of loans being short-term, investors can access their funds fairly quickly – even without a secondary market.

Disadvantages

• Regulation: PeerBerry has decided to withdraw its application to become a licensed investment brokerage firm in Latvia after being in the process for more than two years. Instead, the platform settled in Croatia.
• Audited Reports: To date, PeerBerry does not publish audited financial reports.
• Conflicts of Interest: There is a very close bond between PeerBerry and the Aventus Group as Andrejus Trofimovas is the UBO in both companies.

PeerBerry Alternatives

The closest PeerBerry alternatives that investors can find are Mintos and Income Marketplace. In both cases, the marketplace approach is the common business model. 

You can find other PeerBerry alternatives on the P2P Platform Comparison page.

PeerBerry Community Feedback

The Croatian-based P2P platform is extremely popular among German investors. In 2021, PeerBerry achieved a score of 3.56, in 2022 it was 3.33 points and in 2023 even 3.97 points. This means that PeerBerry has always been among the six most popular platforms in the P2P lending community.

In 2023, only Esketit (4.15) and Robocash (4.13) were able to achieve an even better result.

PeerBerry Review Summary

PeerBerry is one of the first platforms to consider for new investors in 2023. The big popularity derives primarily from the stability that has been shown in times of crisis, combined with liquid assets and attractive interest rates.

Also the track record and market share should provide further confidence for investors. While operaing for 5+ years, the markeplace financed more than €1.6 B in loans and assembled more than 66,000 registered investors. Yet, the returns on PeerBerry are still very competitive, considering other market players.

Hence, PeerBerry has become the biggest position in my personal P2P portfoliop a long time ago. 

FAQ PeerBerry Review