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Ener2Crowd is an Italian lending platform for green-energy projects, authorised by Italy's markets regulator Consob under EU crowdfunding rules since November 2023.
Investors - anyone in the EU, from EUR 100-300 per project - lend directly to small Italian and Spanish companies carrying out solar installations, energy-efficiency refurbishments, energy communities and similar works, at advertised gross rates of 6-10% over one to seven years. It has raised about EUR 59 million across 254 projects since 2019, with roughly 100 fully repaid, and counts over 21,000 registered users.
The crucial point to understand is what you actually hold: a direct, unsecured loan to a small operating company. If that company fails, you queue behind its banks, the tax office and its employees, and Ener2Crowd's role is limited to sharing information - since January 2026 it no longer pays the legal costs of recovery actions.
There is no early exit: the platform does not yet have permission to run even a resale noticeboard, so money is locked until maturity. Cash in transit sits in your own wallet at Lemonway, a French payment institution, separate from the platform's funds, and 26% Italian withholding tax comes off interest (19% on Spanish projects).
The platform's own default figure for 2025 jumped to 6.51% of loans from under 1% in the two years before, and one funded borrower, Solar Cash, is in insolvency proceedings in Milan across seven campaigns.
The company is a certified benefit company backed by Credit Agricole and Intesa Sanpaolo, but it made a EUR 347,000 loss in 2024.
License / Regulation: ECSPR crowdfunding service provider, Consob | Licence 22877 |
Ener2Crowd operates a crowdfunding platform where investors can invest in companies that generate significant environmental and social benefits. Investors can invest in the form of a loan or by acquiring company shares.
Negative feedback is now the dominant public signal. Trustpilot shows 2.6 out of 5 from 145 reviews - 69% five-star but 17% one-star, a split between an older satisfied cohort and 2025-2026 investors hit by defaults. Documented themes: losses exceeding interest (one investor reports EUR 2,900 lost against EUR 1,700 earned across 52 projects), a default rate stated differently across pages and press releases, poor communication when projects fail, allegations of superficial vetting, and the January 2026 decision to stop paying legal recovery costs. Named troubled borrowers include Solar Cash (in Milan insolvency proceedings since April 2025, seven campaigns, 28% proposed recovery), GA Impianti, Sudgel, Aequo and Infinity Hub. The platform closed its 247-member Telegram chat in December 2025, which investors read as suppressing discussion. On the positive side: no Consob or Bank of Italy measure exists against it, and its early record through 2022 was genuinely clean.
The borrower's money sits in a Lemonway wallet that Ener2Crowd controls, so funds can only be drawn for the stated purpose - a genuine control, though how progress milestones are verified is not published. Repayments then flow to your wallet on schedule. When a borrower gets into trouble, the platform's stated role is information-sharing and coordinating legal action; it is not a party to your loan. Its record so far: one borrower cured through a repayment plan, several renegotiated or delayed, one in full insolvency. Since 15 January 2026 it no longer pays legal costs of recovery, and it publishes no recovery rate, no list of late projects and no arrears breakdown.
Italian business lending crowdfunding shrank by about half in the year to mid-2026, the sharpest fall on record, and regulators suspended or restricted several rivals (Bridge Asset, Recrowd). Ener2Crowd has no measure against it and kept publishing honest numbers as they worsened - genuinely better conduct than the worst of its market. But the green label should not be mistaken for the credit: most projects are unsecured loans to small contractors and service companies, and where the platform does fund truly contracted energy assets, it pays investors less.
Projects are screened with the platform's EnerScore system: 60% of the score is a credit check on the borrowing company by an external agency (EasyFintech), 30% a technical and economic review of the energy project, and 10% the company's track record, producing classes from A+ to C that set the interest rate. All projects must be genuinely green. The screen has limits, though: one Spanish development project was listed at 11.75% even though no financial rating could be assigned at all, ratings are sometimes computed on a parent company rather than the actual borrower, and investors allege the vetting failed to catch Solar Cash's deterioration before its final fundraising.
The advertised 'zero management costs' is true only narrowly. Investors pay a 3% commission on interest received on many projects (about a quarter of a percentage point of yield), 10% of any penalty interest recovered, and 2% of the amount on equity deals - and the platform notes these fees do not apply on every project, so check each offer sheet. The bigger deduction is tax: 26% Italian withholding on interest (19% where the borrower is Spanish), taken at source. On the 8.06% average rate an Italian individual keeps roughly 5.8% before any credit losses. Borrowers separately pay 4-7% of what they raise.
Ener2Crowd was founded in Milan in 2018 by Niccolo Sovico (CEO), Paolo Baldinelli (executive chairman) and Sergio Pedolazzi, and lists a team of about ten including a head of legal, a Spain country manager and marketing staff; the company register shows seven employees. Backers add credibility: Credit Agricole Italia invested EUR 1.2 million in 2023, Intesa Sanpaolo provided a EUR 500,000 convertible loan in 2024, and the firm is headquartered at Credit Agricole's Milan startup campus. It is a certified benefit company and was a finalist for the European Commission's 2026 sustainable energy awards. Note the operating company itself lost EUR 347,000 in 2024 on EUR 931,000 of revenue.
