In recent years, PeerBerry has become one of the biggest and most trustworthy P2P lending platforms in Europe. This is mainly due to the reliability of the P2P platform, which has emerged stronger from crisis situations than almost any other P2P company. Be it the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 or the Ukraine war in 2022, which hit PeerBerry harder than any other P2P lending platform.
As a result, PeerBerry has not only grown to one of the largest platforms in the P2P lending environment, the platform has also been the bigges position in my personal P2P portfolio since September 2022.
Nevertheless, there are also some risk factors to consider, including the lack of regulation or unaudited annual reports. My PeerBerry review is therefore providing a detailed look at the opportunity-risk profile of the P2P lending platform and what investors should know before investing.
All the information that are covered in this PeerBerry review are based on my own personal experiences with the platform for the past years. Please make sure to do your own due diligence before investing on PeerBerry 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 PeerBerry.
- PeerBerry is a Croatian P2P platform that is operated from Lithuania, on which investors can invest in buyback-guaranteed consumer loans and achieve a return of up to 11.5%. The operational launch of the platform took place in November 2017.
- The platform is primarily used as a financing vehicle for the lending business of the Aventus Group, a large and established international non-bank lender.
- The war in Ukraine had a massive impact on the platform, with EUR 50+ million in loans affected by the war. The fact that 95% of these loans have already been repaid two years later demonstrates the seriousness and integrity of the platform and its partners.
- PeerBerry regularly achieves top rankings in the annual community votings, which illustrates the popularity of the platform. In four years, PeerBerry has always been among the six best voted P2P lending platforms.
| Founded / Started: | June 2017 / November 2017 |
| Legal Name: | PeerBerry d.o.o. (LINK) |
| Headquarter: | Zagreb, Croatia |
| Regulated: | No |
| CEO: | Arunas Lekavicius (January 2019) |
| Community Voting: | 3.52 out of 5 | See Voting |
| Assets Under Management: | EUR 115+ Million (October 2024) |
| Number of Investors: | 90.000+ (October 2024) |
| Expected Return: | Up to 11.50% |
| Primary Loan Type: | Consumer Loans |
| Collateral: | Buyback Guarantee |
| Bonus: | 0.5% Cashback for 90 Days |
About PeerBerry
PeerBerry is a Croatian P2P marketplace with Lithuanian roots, where investors can invest into a variety of international consumer loans, while earning a return of up to 11.5%.
The operational launch of the platform took place in November 2017, giving PeerBerry a comparatively long track record in the P2P lending environment. Considering the financed loan volume, which exceeded the EUR 2 billion mark in 2023, the P2P marketplace is currently one of the largest and fastest-growing P2P platforms in Europe.
The driving force behind PeerBerry is the Aventus Group, an international non-bank lender that offers a wide range of consumer and business loans for financing on the marketplace.
Because PeerBerry has built up a reputation as a crisis-tested company in recent years, the platform regularly achieves top rankings in the annual community votings, where it has never finished lower than sixth place.
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.
Aventus Group
The Aventus Group was founded in 2009. The company assembles a number of international non-bank lenders under one roof.
The Group’s credit offering is spread across 18+ different markets. In addition to the European focus, an increasing number of business areas is developing in emerging markets such as India, the Philippines or Mexico. The loans are primarily short-term and unsecured consumer loans.
The Aventus Group uses the PeerBerry marketplace to finance parts of its loan portfolio. At the end of 2023, 66% of all outstanding loans came from Aventus Group lending companies.
PeerBerry is currently the only external source of funding for Aventus loans.
Ownership and Management
Who are the main shareholders and management executives behind PeerBerry? Let’s have a look!
PeerBerry Ownership
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 Lithuanian is an experienced businessman with a background in fintech and property. He has been CEO of Aventus Group since January 2017 and has since ensured that PeerBerry investors have received their repayments even in times of crisis.
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 PeerBerry team members can be found on this page.
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 PeerBerry review, you can follow-up on those questions.
Monetization
PeerBerry is mainly generating revenue by applying commission fees to the lenders which are offering their loans for financing on the marketplace. The exact amount of the commission fee can range between 1% and 5%. The fee is therefore flexible and determined based on the quality of the lender and its loan portfolio.
In 2023, PeerBerry has generated a revenue of EUR 1.88 million from commission fees, which corresponds to a similar result in 2022 (EUR 1.79 million).
Profitability
PeerBerry has been consistently profitable since its operational launch and was able to close 2023 with a profitable business result for the sixth year in a row.
However, it should be noted that the annual report – as in previous years – was neither prepared by an auditing company nor was the analysis carried out in accordance with IFRS standards. In this regard, the numbers displayed should be assessed accordingly.
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.
PeerBerry Bonus
If you want to invest on PeerBerry, you will receive a cashback bonus of 0.5% if you register via this link. This way, all of your investments in the first 90 days after registration will receive an additional interest rate booster.
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
PeerBerry promotes five different lender groups on its marketplace: Aventus Group, Gofingo, Lithome, Litelektra and SIBgroup.
With 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 start 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.
Unfortunatey, this is no more a common practice among many P2P platforms, which should therefore be highlighted positively in favor of PeerBerry.
Expected Returns
PeerBerry is currently promoting a return of up to 11.5% 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 investment experience with PeerBerry goes back to June 2021. During this period, I was able to achieve a return of 12.18%. Both the additional bonus through the loyalty program as well as the above-average interest paid throughout 2022 have helped to push the return this far.
With the assistance of the loyalty program, investors have the opportunity to receive an additional cashback depending on the exposure on the platform:
- Silver: 0.5% Cashback for outstanding investment portfolio > EUR 10,000
- Gold: 0.75% Cashback for outstanding investment portfolio > EUR 25,000
- Platinum: 1% Cashback for outstanding investment portfolio > EUR 40,000
Auto Invest
On PeerBerry, investors have a chance to invest in loans manually as well as through an Auto Invest feature.
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 EUR 10, which is a common standard for most consumer loan focused platforms. A secondary market, which would offer additional liquidity for investors, is currently not available.
Buyback Guarantee
PeerBerry, among other platforms, also offers 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.
| Lender | Buyback Guarantee | Group Guarantee |
|---|---|---|
| Aventus Group | Yes | Yes |
| Gofingo | Yes | Yes |
| Lithome | Yes | No |
| SIBgroup | Yes | No |
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.
Alternatively, you can get the latest PeerBerry news and updates via my channels on Telegram or WhatsApp.
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 can they be assessed?
Platform Risk
Is PeerBerry a safe P2P platform? This question can be answered on different levels.
What speaks in favour of PeerBerry’s safety is its long track record since 2017, in which the platform has always fulfilled its obligations and has not yet incurred any losses for investors. The high level of trust and integrity has been particularly evident in crisis situations such as the war in Ukraine, when more than EUR 50+ million in loans were temporarily affected.
Something to be aware of though, are the lack of regulation and the platform’s unaudited annual reports.
Regulation: For many years, PeerBerry has been a P2P platform which has been registered in Latvia. However, after the Latvian financial supervisory authority FCMC wanted to introduce licences for investment companies, conflicts and disputes arose with the platform. The main reasons why PeerBerry moved its jurisdiction to Croatia included a lack of communication, interferences with personnel policies and the relocation of the team to Latvia.
Annual Reports: Another risk warning applies to the published annual reports, which are neither audited by a major auditor nor reviewed in accordance with IFRS standards. The value of those annual reports must therefore be categorised as limited.
Lender Risk
There are a total of five lender groups that offer their loans for financing on PeerBerry. To date, all lenders have honoured their buyback obligations, meaning that no losses have yet been incurred on the platform. Possible repayment delays are due in particular to events such as the war in Ukraine.
PeerBerry applies a range of risk management measures to ensure the quality of the lenders. Among other things, lenders may only finance a maximum of 45% of their loan portfolio on P2P platforms. Secondly, a liquidity reserve of 10% of the loan book value must be formed in order to be able to service loan defaults or payment requests immediately.
PeerBerry in Crisis Situations
In recent years, PeerBerry had to overcome several crisis situations. These included the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine. How did PeerBerry deal with these situations?
Corona Crisis / Covid-19 Pandemic
12 months after the global Covid-19 pandemic hit, PeerBerry has to be considered as one of the big beneficiaries from that crisis. Looking at investor assets under management, PeerBerry managed to more than double this amount 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.
On PeerBerry though, there have been no delays in repayments, defaults or any other inconveniences for investors. Instead, PeerBerry delivered a straight forward communication on how the situation will be handled and what investors can expect in times of uncertainty.
When necessary, lenders have repurchased late loans in a timely and reliable manner. Aventus Group, by far the biggest lender on the marketplace at the time, even generated a net profit of EUR 10 million 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 start of the war, amounted to approximately EUR 50 million.
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 fact, the investment platform has made considerable progress in repaying loans affected by the war. By the end of 2023, 92% of all outstanding claims had already been repaid to investors.
Advantages and Disadvantages
In this section, I have listed the most important advantages and disadvantages of PeerBerry.
Advantages
- Track Record: PeerBerry has started its operations in November 2017.
- Market Size: With EUR 2.7+ billion in financed loans, PeerBerry is one of the largest platforms in Europe.
- Lending Partner: With the Aventus Group, PeerBerry has a large and established partner at its side.
- Crisis-Tested: PeerBerry has demonstrated very good crisis management in the past.
- Risk Management: Investors have not yet incurred any losses on the platform.
- Profitability: PeerBerry has been consistently profitable since the beginning.
- Liquidity: Many short-term loans ensure a high degree of liquidity.
Disadvantages
- Regulation: PeerBerry is not controlled or monitored by any financial supervisory authority.
- Annual Reports: There are no audited and reviewed financial results of the platform.
- Conflicts of Interest: Andrejus Trofimovas is the majority shareholder of both PeerBerry and the Aventus Group.
PeerBerry Alternatives
In case you are already invested on PeerBerry, let’s take a look at potential PeerBerry alternatives.
In a nutshell, PeerBerry operates with a marketplace model where external lending companies offer their loans for financing on the platform. The same business model is also practised by P2P lending platforms such as Mintos, Income Marketplace or Debitum Investments.
Mintos
With EUR 600+ million in investor assets under management and more than 500,000 registered users, Mintos is the largest P2P lending platform in Europe. In addition to a wide range of loans, the Latvian P2P marketplace also offers other asset classes. These include ETFs, bonds or real estate. Additional information can be found in my Mintos review.
Income Marketplace
Income Marketplace is an unregulated P2P marketplace based in Estonia. The platform, which had its operational start in January 2021, markets itself with a range of innovative security features that are designed to provide investors with significantly better protection against problematic lenders. So far, investors have not suffered any losses on Income Marketplace yet. In addition, many of the lenders represented on Income offer an attractive combination of high interest rates and high liquidity. Further information on the Esketit alternative can be found in my Income Marketplace review.
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 PeerBerry alternatives on the P2P Platform Comparison page.
Community Feedback
The Croatia-based P2P platform is extremely popular among P2P investors. At least if you use the ratings of the P2P community voting as a benchmark, where PeerBerry has always been among the six best P2P platforms in the last four years.
In 2021, PeerBerry managed an average score of 3.56 points, in 2022 it was 3.33 points and in 2023 even 3.97 points. In 2024, the score was only 3.52 points, but this result was still enough for a strong fourth place, with a minimal gap (0.02 points) to the podium.
The only P2P platforms more popular than PeerBerry in 2024 have been Robocash, Profitus and Viainvest. The ratings are based on my P2P Community Voting 2024.
Summary PeerBerry Review 2024
What is the conclusion of this PeerBerry review?
PeerBerry is one of the biggest and most popular P2P lending platforms in Europe. PeerBerry’s popularity is in particular due to the platform’s stability and exceptional crisis management. Whether it’s a lack of regulation, the coronavirus pandemic or the war in Ukraine, the platform has always emerged stronger from every difficult situation to date.
The increasing market maturity, coupled with competitive interest rates, make PeerBerry one of the best options for any investor that is starting out and searches for a reliable and stable P2P investment.
On the flipside, decreasing interest rates and a temporary cash drag must be accepted as well. Unfortunately, this is unavoidable for one of the most attractive and compelling P2P platforms in Europe.
Personally, PeerBerry has been the largest position in my P2P portfolio since September 2022. If the marketplace continues to maintain its reliability, I will remain invested on the platform with a larger amount for a long time to come.
FAQ PeerBerry Review
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%.
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 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.
If you want to invest on PeerBerry, you will receive a cashback bonus of 0.5% if you register via this link.
Hi, ich bin Denny! Seit Januar 2019 schreibe ich auf diesem Blog über meine Erfahrungen beim Investieren in P2P Kredite. Meine Analysen sollen Privatanlegern dabei helfen reflektierte und gut informierte Anlageentscheidungen treffen zu können. Dafür schaue ich mir die Risikoprofile der einzelnen P2P Plattformen an, hinterfrage deren Entwicklungen, teile meine persönlichen Einschätzungen und beobachte übergeordnete Trends aus der Welt des Crowdlendings.
Mein Bestseller "Geldanlage P2P Kredite" gilt in Fachkreisen als das beste deutschsprachige Finanzbuch zum gleichnamigen Thema. Zudem versammeln sich in der P2P Kredite Community auf Facebook tausende von Privatanlegern, die sich regelmäßig über die Anlageklasse P2P Kredite austauschen.