Colectual Review 2026

What it is

Colectual is a Spanish crowdlending platform from Valencia, set up in 2015, that lends investors' money to established small and medium-sized Spanish companies. It says it has financed more than €30 million across more than 400 projects for more than 7,000 registered investors (home page, July 2026). Since 2024 it also manages the remaining loans of two closed Spanish platforms, Socilen and Inveslar. Activity is low: no project was open for investment in October 2026, and the outstanding loan book was about €1.0 million in July 2025, down from €4.6 million at the end of 2022.

How it works

You lend from €100 per loan, choosing loans yourself or through an automatic investing option. Borrowers must have traded for at least two years with positive results; start-ups are excluded. Colectual grades each company from A to E, and the grade sets the interest rate. Loans repay monthly and have become very short: 3.3 months on average for loans made in 2025, against 9 months in 2022.

Returns

Loans made in 2025 carried an average rate of 6.80% a year, the latest figure published (statistics updated 31 July 2025). Earlier years ranged from 5.80% (2020) to 7.08% (2023). The home page advertises an average of 6.82% and rates from 3.3% to 7.5%; loans backed by a mutual guarantee society pay less, from 2.25%. These are rates borrowers agreed to pay, before Colectual's fees of 1% a year on outstanding loans and 1% a year on invested portfolios, and before any losses. No return actually received by investors after losses is published.

Losses and defaults

Colectual's EU-standard disclosure shows that 3 of the 31 loans longer than a year made in 2022 defaulted (more than 90 days late on any amount), a default rate of 9.68%; among grade C loans it was 15.4% (data to December 2024). Later years show 0%, but on only 4 loans (2023), 1 loan (2024) and none (2025), so they say little. These figures leave out the short loans that now make up most lending. The statistics page counts borrowers behind on payments: 20 in 2022, 3 in 2023, 1 in 2024 and 0 in 2025 (to July). No figure for money actually lost or recovered is published, and a 2025 blog headline claiming lending "without defaults" does not match the 9.68% in the platform's own disclosure.

What secures your money

Most loans are unsecured: the company's partners or directors usually give a personal guarantee, but no property or other asset backs the loan. One class of loans is guaranteed by a mutual guarantee society (an SGR), which is why it pays less. There is no buyback, reserve fund or insurance at platform level. If a borrower stops paying, Colectual first tries to recover the money amicably for up to 90 days and then goes to court, taking 6% or 12% of what it recovers. It has never published how much of the defaulted money came back. In plain words: unless your loan has the guarantee society behind it, you depend on the company and its owners paying.

Who runs it and its licence

Sociedad Económica para el Desarrollo de la Financiación Alternativa Colectual, PSFP, S.L. (Valencia, tax no. B98735210) runs the platform. Spain's market regulator, the CNMV, authorised it as a European crowdfunding service provider on 22 December 2023 (register no. 21). No sanction or warning was found. The company is very small, with about three employees, and is owned by more than 80 shareholders, none with a significant stake. In February 2024, while moving Socilen's loans onto its system, investors' balances at its payment provider were frozen for more than three weeks, and investors report losses on legacy Inveslar loans it manages. Public review score 2.5 out of 5 (13 reviews, August 2026).

Fees

Opening an account and paying in by card are free; the first withdrawal each month is free and later ones cost €1. Colectual charges 1% a year on the outstanding balance of each loan, taken only when the borrower pays, plus a portfolio management fee of 1% a year on your invested balance; the fee page does not explain how the two fees relate. On defaulted loans it keeps 6% of amounts recovered amicably and 12% of amounts recovered through the courts.

Getting your money out

There is no secondary market, so your money stays in each loan until it is repaid. Because recent loans average about three months and repay monthly, money comes back quickly when borrowers pay. Cash in your wallet can be withdrawn only to a bank account verified in your own name.

Our view

Return: Low — loans made in 2025 carried 6.80% a year on average, before 1% to 2% of fees and before losses. Risk: High (higher means more risk) — 9.68% of the longer loans made in 2022 defaulted, and we rate it one step worse because the statistics are more than a year old, no loss or recovery figures are published, marketing claims no defaults, and investors' money was frozen for weeks in 2024. Risk-return: Very Low — a modest rate does not pay for this level of risk.