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Business loans, Solar and wind · Germany · since 2012
Reviewed by Eugene Sokolovs, figures checked 3 Nov 2026
Frankfurt platform since 2013 lending to energy-efficiency and renewable-energy companies, many in Africa, Asia and Latin America: unsecured subordinated loans from €50, over €30 million funded in 150+ projects (October 2026).
Capital at risk. Past returns do not predict future returns; a borrower can pay late or not at all.
Higher means more risk. 11.8% of all money funded is in projects the platform labels defaulted (October 2026), which on its own gives High. We set it one step higher, at Very High, because the loans are unsecured and rank last, the statistics page has not been updated since August 2021, no default definition or recoveries are published, and 25 of 66 finished projects (38%) defaulted.
Set by the highest rate offered on its project list, 12% a year, on a project that later defaulted. It is a promise, not a result: the average promised rate is 6.9% (December 2025) and nothing realised is published.
Held at Low because only an advertised rate is known: a very high promised rate against very high risk. With 25 of 66 finished projects in default and no figure for what investors kept after losses, the rates offered may not make up for the losses.
Capital at risk. Past returns do not predict future returns; a borrower can pay late or not at all.
bettervest is a Frankfurt platform, running since 2013, that lends investors' money to companies paying for energy-saving and renewable-energy equipment: efficiency upgrades, solar mini-grids, clean cookstoves, electric vehicles and, from 2026, green hydrogen. Many borrowers are in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Its home page shows over €30 million funded across more than 150 projects in 24 countries (October 2026).
You choose projects yourself. Most are subordinated loans from €50, in steps of €50; a few are bonds from €250. Each loan is issued by a small German company set up for that one project, which passes the money on to the borrower. Terms run from 1 to 10 years, usually 5 to 8, and you are repaid in instalments of interest and capital. The legal maximum is €25,000 per loan investment.
bettervest publishes no figure for what investors actually earned. The highest rate on its list of funded projects is 12% a year, on a coffee-briquette factory in Ethiopia that has since defaulted (list read on 24 October 2026). Its home page shows an average promised rate of 6.9% (December 2025); this is an average of the rates offered, with nothing taken off for failed projects. Offers in 2026 paid about 9% a year, one with an extra 1 point if the company reaches a set milestone.
bettervest publishes no default rate, but its own project list labels every funded project as financed, repaid or defaulted. On 24 October 2026 the list showed 162 projects for €32.22 million: 96 still being repaid, 41 repaid and 25 defaulted. The defaulted projects had raised €3.80 million, 11.8% of all money funded, calculated from the platform's own figures. Of the 66 projects that have finished, 25 (38%) defaulted. The platform does not say what counts as a default, how much was recovered, or which running projects are late. The number of failed projects has risen: its own statistics page showed 10 in insolvency proceedings in August 2021, and that page has not been updated since.
Usually nothing. The loans are subordinated: if the borrower fails, you are paid only after all other creditors, and you may not demand repayment if that would push the borrower into insolvency. The platform itself warns that this can mean total loss. There is no buyback, reserve fund or insurance. Bonds can carry security such as a guarantee, described on each project page. Recoveries are not published; one known case returned about half the money. In plain words: your money depends on each borrower being able to repay, and you rank last if it cannot.
bettervest GmbH (Frankfurt am Main, commercial register HRB 95811) has no licence of its own. It acts as a tied agent of Effecta GmbH, an investment firm supervised in Germany. It is not authorised under the EU crowdfunding regulation: its subordinated loans fall outside those rules, so they do not carry that regime's investor protections. Offers are made on a short German information sheet, not a prospectus approved by the German regulator BaFin. The company is active, with no insolvency entry, and registered a capital increase in October 2025.
Investors pay no fees, the platform says. The borrowing companies pay for the service; in one published offer Effecta took a 5% commission and passed 90% of it to bettervest. These costs are paid from the borrower's money.
You cannot sell early: there is no market to sell your loans to other investors, so you wait for the instalments until the end of the term. You can withdraw within two weeks of investing. The platform publishes no timetable for resolving defaulted projects.
Return: Very High — the highest rate offered on its list is 12% a year, but that is a promise on a project that later defaulted, and no realised return is published. Risk: Very High (higher means more risk) — 11.8% of all money funded is in defaulted projects, which on its own gives High; we set it one step higher because the loans are unsecured and rank last, the statistics have not been updated since 2021, and 25 of 66 finished projects (38%) defaulted. Risk-return: Low, held at Low because only an advertised rate is known — high promised rates are matched by very high risk, with no proof of what investors kept after defaults.
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Only indirectly. bettervest GmbH has no licence of its own; it works as a tied agent of Effecta GmbH, a supervised German investment firm. It is not authorised under the EU crowdfunding regulation, because its subordinated loans fall outside those rules, and offers use a short information sheet rather than a prospectus approved by BaFin.
secupay AG, a licensed German payment institution, keeps money paid in for a loan on an insolvency-protected trust account until the project reaches its funding threshold, and refunds it if the threshold is missed. Bond money goes through a paying agent bank. Once the loan is paid out, your money is with the project company and its borrower.
€50 for subordinated loans, in steps of €50, and €250 for bonds. The legal maximum is €25,000 per loan investment.
No realised return is published. Rates promised averaged 6.9% (December 2025), and the highest on the project list was 12%. On 24 October 2026 the platform's project list showed 25 of 162 projects defaulted, €3.80 million of €32.22 million funded (11.8%), and 25 of the 66 finished projects (38%).
Usually nothing. The loans are subordinated, so you are paid after all other creditors if a borrower fails, and the platform warns this can mean total loss. There is no buyback, reserve fund or insurance; some bonds carry a guarantee, described on the project page. Recoveries are not published.
No. There is no market to sell to other investors, so you stay in until the last instalment, usually 5 to 8 years. You can withdraw within two weeks of investing. No timetable for resolving defaulted projects is published.
None, the platform says. The borrowing companies pay for the service; in one published offer the commission was 5% of the money raised.
Your loan is with the project company, not with bettervest, and money waiting for a project sits in a trust account. If a borrower fails, you rank behind all other creditors and may lose everything. No compensation scheme covers losses.
There is no sign of it: the company is active, has no insolvency entry and registered a capital increase in October 2025. The problems are in the loan book, where 25 projects are labelled defaulted (October 2026).
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