Afranga Review 2026

What it is

Afranga is a Bulgarian platform, founded in 2020, through which investors lend money to consumer-lending companies. It holds Bulgaria's first European crowdfunding licence (September 2023) and relaunched under it in March 2025. The platform shows €44.6 million invested by investors and €3.9 million of interest paid since launch (26 October 2026). Its home page also shows "€100+M invested", which counts money lent since 2021, including under the old model.

How it works

Since March 2025 you no longer buy slices of consumer loans. You make a fixed-term loan directly to one of six lending companies, which lend on to people in Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. You choose the offers yourself from €10; there is no auto-invest. A separate product, SaveSmart, spreads your money automatically for a fixed term and advertises average returns of 8% to 10%.

The lenders and their share of the money on the platform (October 2026): Stikcredit €22 million, Tiberus (car-secured loans) €11 million, Credirect €5.9 million, Lendivo €2.3 million, Swiss Funds €1.4 million and Lev Credit €1.2 million, out of €43.8 million. Afranga's sole owner, Svetlin Sabev, sits on Stikcredit's board and co-founded Tiberus and Lendivo.

Returns

The lenders currently pay average rates of 8.97% to 11.58% a year (October 2026). Weighted by how much each lender has on the platform, that is about 10.6% a year, calculated from the platform's own figures. This is the rate the loans carry, before Bulgaria's 10% tax withheld on interest; the platform publishes no figure for what investors actually earned. The home page still advertises returns of up to 16%, which no current offer pays. Independent tracking of investor portfolios points to about 14.6% a year (August 2026), lifted by older loans at higher rates. Rates have been falling.

Losses and defaults

Afranga's portfolio health chart shows 100% of the money lent as current and 0% late in every band from 1 to more than 60 days (1 October 2026, unchanged on 26 October 2026). No lender has failed since the March 2025 relaunch. The figure has limits: it gives no default definition and does not say whether it counts loans or euros, and Afranga does not publish the yearly default rate that licensed crowdfunding platforms in the EU are asked to disclose.

The 0% measures whether the lending companies pay you, not how their own customers pay them. Those loans perform much worse: Stikcredit's audited 2025 accounts set aside €7.1 million for expected credit losses against a loan book of €15.9 million, about 45%. That is normal in Bulgarian short-term consumer lending, but it is the money the lender has to absorb before it can pay you. Lev Credit reports no impairment on its property-secured loans (31 December 2025).

What secures your money

Mostly nothing beyond the lending company's promise to repay. Your loan to the lender is an unsecured claim, and there is no buyback, reserve fund or insurance; the old 60-day buyback ended with the March 2025 relaunch. Some of the consumer loans underneath are secured: Tiberus lends against cars, and about 60% of Lev Credit's loans are first-ranking mortgages of up to 50% of the property's value. Investors do not hold that security themselves.

In practice the credit you take is Stikcredit's. It borrows about half of all the money on the platform directly, and it has signed a guarantee letter for Tiberus, another quarter, so roughly three quarters depends on Stikcredit's balance sheet (calculated from the platform's own figures, October 2026). Stikcredit has lent heavily to companies of its own shareholders, reported at about 80% of its equity in early 2026. Afranga reviews the lenders itself; there is no independent rating, and the people who own and run the platform are linked to the main lenders. No recoveries have been needed or published. In plain words: if Stikcredit failed, you would be an unsecured creditor of a Bulgarian company and could lose much of what you lent through it and through Tiberus.

Who runs it and its licence

AFRANGA EOOD (Sofia, company no. 206337510) runs the platform and is wholly owned by its manager, Svetlin Sabev, since February 2023. The Bulgarian Financial Supervision Commission granted it a European crowdfunding service provider licence on 12 September 2023 (licence no. 0001). Stikcredit (Stik Credit JSC, Shumen) has been lending since 2013 and is registered as a financial institution with the Bulgarian National Bank. Investors' cash is held by Lemonway, a French payment institution, not by Afranga. No deposit guarantee or investor compensation scheme covers your money.

Fees

Afranga's home page promises "no hidden fees", but the platform does not publish an investor price list on its public pages. Bulgaria withholds 10% tax on the interest you receive.

Getting your money out

Plan to hold each loan to the end of its term. The secondary market was switched off at the March 2025 relaunch and had not returned by August 2026; the terms warn that you may not be able to sell your investment when you want to. Free cash can be withdrawn from your account; recent investor reviews mention withdrawals held up by identity and bank-account checks. Public review score 3.4 out of 5 (39 reviews, October 2026).

Our view

Return: High — the loans on offer pay about 10.6% a year on average (October 2026). Risk: Low (higher means more risk) — no money is late on the platform, but we rate it one step worse because about three quarters of the money depends on Stikcredit, the main lenders are linked to the platform's owner, there is no buyback or security on your loan, and default disclosure is thin. Risk-return: High — a solid rate for a risk that so far shows no losses, as long as Stikcredit and its group stay healthy.