Ecrowd! - Risk and return review
Ecrowd! - Returns and loss rates
Ecrowd! – Platform statistics 2026
6698
investors
Ecrowd! – Pros & Cons
About Ecrowd!
What it is
Ecrowd! is a small Barcelona lending platform, founded in October 2013, that lends investors' money to Spanish companies for projects with an environmental or social purpose. About three-quarters of the projects on its list are solar or other energy projects; most of the rest are rural fibre-optic networks and energy communities (August 2026). Since it started it has lent €11.2 million, and 6,698 investors are registered (October 2026). Lending has slowed: €651,000 was lent in 2025.
How it works
You choose projects yourself, from €50 each. Each project is a loan to the company itself, repaid in monthly or half-yearly instalments over about 1 to 11 years, most often 3, 5 or 7 years. There is no automatic investing. Unless you are an experienced investor, the platform advises putting no more than €1,000 into one project, or 5% of your liquid wealth if that is more.
Returns
Ecrowd publishes no average or realised return. The rate shown on its latest projects is 5% a year (October 2026); a few deals in August 2026 paid 5.5%. This is the rate promised on each loan, already after the share Ecrowd keeps, and nothing is taken off for defaults. Investors have received €9.74 million in instalments so far (October 2026), an amount that mixes capital and interest.
Losses and defaults
The platform shows a default table only to logged-in investors, and it covers only loans made from 2020. Of the 73 loans worth €5.0 million made from 2020 to 2025, 4 loans with €92,210 still owed are in default and in court or insolvency claims, which the platform says will probably not be repaid: 1.84%, calculated from the platform's own figures (as of 31 December 2025). By year of lending: 2.79% of the 2020 loans, 5.10% of 2021, none of 2022 and 2023, 2.83% of 2024, and none of 2025, which are too young to judge. Loans made before 2020 are not in the table; investors have publicly reported several of them going to court, some for years, with less than half the money recovered.
What secures your money
Very little. The loans are unsecured: there is no mortgage, no pledge over the solar panels or other equipment, and no separate project company. The borrowing company is liable, and usually its owner gives a personal guarantee. There is no buyback, reserve fund or insurance, and the security is not independently valued because there is none to value. If a borrower stops paying, Ecrowd tries to renegotiate and then passes the loan to recovery firms or the courts. It publishes no recovery figure and assumes nothing is recovered in its own forecasts. In plain words: your loan depends on one small company and its owner, and if they fail you may get back little, years later.
Who runs it and its licence
Ecrowd Invest Plataforma de Financiación Participativa, S.L. (Barcelona) is authorised by Spain's markets regulator, the CNMV, as a crowdfunding service provider under the EU crowdfunding regulation, register number 17, since 7 December 2023. It held a Spanish platform licence before that, from 2016. It is run by a single administrator, Jordi Solé Muntada, and has share capital of €70,693. No deposit guarantee covers your money.
Fees
Investors pay no commission; the borrowers pay. Ecrowd earns the difference between what the borrower pays and the rate you receive, and does not say how large it is. Paying in by bank transfer is free; paying in by card costs 1% plus €0.30, and a transfer that needs manual matching costs €30 plus VAT.
Getting your money out
You cannot sell early. There is no market to sell your loans to other investors, so your money comes back only through the instalments, over up to about 11 years. Money already repaid to your account can be withdrawn to your bank and usually arrives in 1 to 3 days.
Our view
Return: Very Low — about 5% a year promised on each loan, with no realised figure published. Risk: High (higher means more risk) — 1.84% of loans since 2020 are in court or insolvency claims, which is moderate on its own, but the loans are unsecured, the default table is shown only after login and leaves out older loans, and investors report long court recoveries. Risk-return: Very Low — a low promised rate for unsecured loans that you cannot sell.
Regulation
License / Regulation: Ecrowd Invest Plataforma de Financiación Participativa, S.L. (CIF B66143736) is authorised by the Spanish Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV) as a crowdfunding service provider under Regulation (EU) 2020/1503, register number 17, since 7 December 2023. It was previously authorised under the Spanish crowdfunding law of 2015 (from 2016). It is not a payment, e-money or credit institution. No deposit guarantee or investor compensation scheme covers losses.
Functionality
For Investors
Useful Information
Yes. It is authorised by Spain's markets regulator, the CNMV, as a crowdfunding service provider under the EU crowdfunding regulation, register number 17, since 7 December 2023. Regulation does not protect you from losses on the loans, and no deposit guarantee applies.
Lemonway SAS, a French payment institution authorised by the Banque de France, keeps your money in a wallet account opened in your own name, separate from Ecrowd's own money.
€50 per project. Each project sets its own minimum and maximum. If you are not an experienced investor, the platform advises no more than €1,000 per project, or 5% of your liquid wealth if greater.
The latest projects promise 5% a year (October 2026); no realised return is published. Of the €5.0 million lent from 2020 to 2025, 1.84% (€92,210, 4 of 73 loans) is in court or insolvency claims and probably lost (31 December 2025). Loans made before 2020 are not counted.
Little. The loans are unsecured, with no mortgage and no pledge over the equipment; the borrowing company is liable and usually its owner gives a personal guarantee. There is no buyback, reserve fund or insurance, and no recovery figure is published.
No. There is no secondary market, so your money comes back only through the instalments, over up to about 11 years.
No commission; borrowers pay the platform, and Ecrowd keeps an undisclosed share of the interest. Paying in by bank transfer is free, by card 1% plus €0.30.
Your money waiting in your wallet is held by Lemonway in your own name, not by Ecrowd. If a borrower stops paying, Ecrowd renegotiates and then uses recovery firms or the courts, which can take years and may return little. No compensation scheme covers losses.
Ecrowd shows its default table only to registered investors who log in, and the table starts with loans made in 2020. Older loans, some of which investors report spent years in court, are not included.
