21000
investors
Lendermarket is an Irish marketplace, run by Lendermarket Limited in Dublin (company founded in 2016, lending to investors since 2019), where you buy small parts of short-term consumer loans that lending companies have already made. Most of the loans come from Creditstar Group, an Estonian consumer lender. Creditstar and Lendermarket have the same ultimate owner. Other lenders include Dineo in Spain, Best Credit in Romania and Credifiel in Mexico, plus a small share of business loans through Flowpay.
You pay in euros and buy loan parts from €10, by hand or with an automatic investing tool. You lend through the lending company, not directly to the borrower. If a borrower is more than 60 days late, the lending company has to buy the loan back with the interest owed. Late money earns penalty interest of 18% a year. The platform says it had arranged €610.5 million of loans in total and had €62.8 million out on loan (both as of 23 February 2026).
The loans on the platform carry an average interest rate of 13.46% a year, weighted by amount (as of 23 February 2026; the statistics page has not been updated since). The home page advertises up to 15% a year, and the Auto Invest FLEX product up to 10.5% (October 2026). These are interest rates on the loans, not what investors were actually paid: the platform publishes no measured return after delays and losses. Its own statistics page also shows two different totals for interest paid to investors, €39.6 million and €30.13 million. Independent tracking of investor portfolios points to about 18% a year (median, August 2026), lifted by the penalty interest on late payments.
The platform shows a default rate of 0.00% (as of 23 February 2026). It does not say what this counts or what it is measured against. Because lenders buy back loans at 60 days late, bad loans leave the platform before they can show up in the figure, so it shows that buybacks have been paid, not how well borrowers repay. Investors have not lost money according to the platform, but many waited a long time: from 2022 Creditstar extended loans without borrowers asking, locking investor money for up to 720 days, and payments were rationed for about three years, until 2025. Independent tracking of investor portfolios points to 11.7% of money out on loan being overdue and 0.9% still waiting in "pending payments" on 3 August 2026. Creditstar itself classed about €58.9 million of its loans, roughly 11%, as non-performing at the end of 2025.
The loans are mostly unsecured consumer loans: no property or other assets back them. Your protection is the lending company's promise to buy back loans that are more than 60 days late, and the part of each loan the lender keeps for itself. There is no reserve fund and no insurance. The buyback can be pushed back: loans can be extended up to six times by 30 days, so a buyback can come up to 240 days late, and in 2022 to 2024 waits reached 720 days. The platform publishes no recovery figures. In plain words: you are relying on Creditstar and the other lenders staying able to pay, and the main lender has the same owner as the platform.
Lendermarket Limited (Ireland, company number 585178) is owned by SA Financial Investments OÜ in Estonia. Its ultimate owner, Aaro Sosaar, also controls Creditstar Group AS, the main lender, so this is not an arm's-length relationship. The Central Bank of Ireland authorised Lendermarket as a European crowdfunding service provider on 17 December 2024. Lendermarket also runs a service outside that authorisation, so not every loan on the platform falls under the crowdfunding rules. The Creditstar group also raises money by issuing bonds through Creditstar International OÜ, which shows that larger investors are willing to finance it; this is a positive signal, not a promise.
Registering, depositing, investing and withdrawing are free on the platform's fee page; your own bank or card provider may charge. Leaving Auto Invest FLEX early costs 3.5% of the amount taken out. Lendermarket is paid by the lending companies.
There is no market for selling loans to other investors. You get money back as loans are repaid or bought back, and you can then withdraw it. The only early exit is Auto Invest FLEX, which charges 3.5% and depends on new investors' money coming in. In a repeat of the 2022 to 2025 delays, money could stay locked for months or years.
Return: Very High — the loans carry 13.46% a year on average, though no measured return is published. Risk: Low (higher means more risk) — no investor losses are reported, but we rate it one step worse than that figure alone because of years of payment delays, an undefined 0% default rate, statistics last updated in February 2026 and a main lender with the same owner as the platform. Risk-return: Medium — the group behind the main lender also raises money through bonds, which shows larger investors are willing to finance it, so we judge it on the strength of the lending companies; every concern above still applies.
License / Regulation: Lendermarket Limited (Ireland, company number 585178) is authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland as a European crowdfunding service provider under Regulation (EU) 2020/1503, since 17 December 2024. It also runs a service outside that authorisation, so not every loan on the platform falls under the crowdfunding rules. No deposit guarantee or investor compensation scheme covers the loans.
Yes, partly. The Central Bank of Ireland authorised Lendermarket Limited as a European crowdfunding service provider on 17 December 2024. The platform also runs a service outside that authorisation, so not every loan falls under the crowdfunding rules. No compensation scheme covers the loans.
Lendermarket's own pages do not name the firm. Cash waiting in your account is reported to be kept in segregated accounts at FIRE Financial Services, a UK-authorised payments firm. Once invested, your money is in claims on loans made by the lending companies.
€10 per loan part. You must be 18 or over, tax resident in the EU or Switzerland and have a bank account in the European Economic Area or Switzerland.
The loans carry 13.46% a year on average (as of 23 February 2026), and the platform advertises up to 15%. It shows a 0.00% default rate, with no definition. No investor losses are reported, but from 2022 to 2025 many investors waited up to 720 days for their money, and independent tracking of investor portfolios points to 11.7% of money out on loan being overdue on 3 August 2026.
Mostly nothing physical: the loans are unsecured consumer loans. Your protection is the lending company's promise to buy back loans more than 60 days late, plus the part of each loan it keeps. There is no reserve fund or insurance, the buyback can be delayed up to 240 days by loan extensions, and the main lender, Creditstar, has the same owner as the platform.
There is no market to sell loans to other investors. You can withdraw money as loans are repaid or bought back. Auto Invest FLEX lets you leave early for a 3.5% fee, but only while new investors' money is coming in.
No fee to register, deposit, invest or withdraw on the platform's fee page; your bank or card provider may charge. Leaving Auto Invest FLEX early costs 3.5% of the amount taken out. The lending companies pay Lendermarket.
If a lender fails, its buyback promise fails too, and you would depend on what can be recovered from its loans, which could take years and return less than you paid in. If Lendermarket fails, uninvested cash in segregated accounts should be kept apart from the company's own money, but your loan claims are not covered by any guarantee or compensation scheme.
From 2022 Creditstar, the main lender, extended loans without borrowers asking and rationed payments to investors for about three years. Money was locked for up to 720 days. Late money earned 18% a year penalty interest. Lendermarket reports no investor losses, but the delays show the buyback depends on the lender having cash.
