Fellow Funders Review

What it is

Fellow Funders is a Spanish investment platform, based in Madrid and part of Orbyn Group, where you buy shares in companies set up for a project. It began with startups and now focuses on farms (for example pistachio and almond plantations), property developments, private-equity deals (such as taxi-licence businesses in Madrid) and energy. The platform says more than €60 million has been invested in more than 90 projects and that it has 4,800 active investors (read 1 November 2026, undated).

How it works

You sign up online for free, get a virtual IBAN, and choose each project yourself, from €1,000 per project. Your money waits in a blocked account until the round closes; only the company raising money can use it, and only after the round succeeds. Property deals typically aim to exit after about 30 months; farm and private-equity deals run longer. You receive periodic reports and can follow your portfolio online and in the platform's app.

Returns

The platform reports an average historical return (internal rate of return) of 12.4% on projects that have already finished. It does not say how many projects that covers, how it is weighted, when it was measured, or whether failed startups are counted. Current offers show estimated returns of up to 25.40% a year (a taxi-licence deal), 22.70% (a storage deal) and 15.64% to 20.14% (farms), which the platform says are not guaranteed.

Losses and defaults

Fellow Funders publishes no figures on failed projects, write-offs or capital lost, and no list of exits (checked 1 November 2026). It has funded startup rounds for years, where failures are common, so the 12.4% average cannot be checked against losses.

What secures your money

Nothing secures your money: you own shares in an unlisted company or project vehicle, and if it fails you rank behind its lenders and can lose all you invested. Shares can also be diluted when the company issues new ones. No buyback, guarantee or reserve fund is offered. The only protection is the platform's checks before a project is published (team, market, model and exit for companies; licences, land price and loan-to-value for property).

Who runs it and its licence

The platform is run by Fellow Funders PSFP S.A.U. (C/ Lagasca 120, 28006 Madrid, tax number A87675716), part of Orbyn Group. It is a European crowdfunding service provider under Regulation (EU) 2020/1503, supervised by the Spanish market regulator (CNMV), and its site links to its entry in the CNMV register. The projects themselves are not authorised or supervised by the CNMV or the Bank of Spain. Investments are not covered by a deposit guarantee or investor compensation scheme.

Fees

Investors pay nothing: no sign-up, entry, management or exit fees. The company raising money pays the platform up to 8% of the amount raised, only if the round succeeds, plus up to €20,000 for preparation services and up to €7,500 a year for follow-up services.

Getting your money out

There is no public market for these shares, and company articles usually restrict their sale. If you need to sell early, the platform says it will help offer your shares first to other investors in the project, then to the promoter and then to new investors, with no guarantee of a buyer. Otherwise you wait for the project's exit, about 30 months on property deals and often years for companies.

Our view

Return: Very high (the figure is undated and undefined), based on the 12.4% average return the platform reports on finished projects. Risk: High (higher means more risk), because no failure or loss figure is published and shares are not secured. Risk-return: Medium, a high reported return against losses that cannot be seen.