Lumo - Risk and return review
Lumo - Returns and loss rates
Lumo – Platform statistics 2026
Lumo – Pros & Cons
About Lumo
What it is
Lumo is a French crowdfunding platform for renewable-energy projects, launched in 2012. Since late 2025 it has been a brand of Enerfip SAS, a licensed crowdfunding company in Montpellier founded in 2014, and the former Lumo company was wound up. By 29 October 2026 Lumo had raised EUR 245.2 million for 285 projects, 21 of them in 2026.
How it works
You buy bonds issued by companies building solar, wind, hydro, biogas or green-mobility projects, from EUR 50 (one bond). Advertised rates are 5% to 9% a year before tax, over 3 to 5 years; interest is usually paid once a year and the capital at the end. Projects are mostly French, with some in Germany and Ireland. On 30 October 2026 three offers were open and two more were due to open in early November.
Returns
After losses, investors have earned less than the headline rates. The weighted average interest rate across all projects is 6.72% a year, but the realised return after known losses is 5.05% a year, against 6.60% if every loan had been repaid on time (October 2026, before tax). Projects funded in 2023 have returned only 2.24% a year so far, because of one large failure.
Losses and defaults
Losses come mainly from one borrower. Five bond issues of the industrial company Gaussin SA, EUR 12.0 million in total, are in court proceedings; Gaussin was put into liquidation on 29 November 2024 and Lumo says these bondholders will not be repaid. That is about 4.9% of everything Lumo has raised. Lumo puts the yearly cost of late payments and defaults at 1.56%. In October 2026 a further 6 projects (EUR 4.61 million) were up to six months late and one project (EUR 1.02 million) more than six months late. Lumo does not publish a formal default rate.
What secures your money
Nothing secures the bonds. There is no mortgage, guarantee, buyback or reserve fund, and bondholders are paid last if a borrower goes bust. What this means for you: if a project company fails, you may get nothing back, as happened with Gaussin. Your cash waiting to be invested is kept by a licensed payment institution, which protects it if the platform fails, but not your investments.
Who runs it and its licence
Lumo is run by Enerfip SAS (Montpellier, RCS 804 231 546), which holds an EU crowdfunding licence from the French regulator AMF, number FP-2022-2, granted on 6 December 2022; the AMF list names lumo-france.com as a website of the brand "Enerfip - Lumo". The former company LUMO SASU was dissolved on 29 December 2025 and removed from the register on 21 January 2026, after its 2024 revenue fell by 69.2% to EUR 817,000 with no employees.
Fees
Investors pay no entry, management or withdrawal fee. The project companies pay Lumo a commission of up to 7% of the money raised. French residents have tax deducted from interest at source.
Getting your money out
Your money stays in each bond until it is repaid, usually after 3 to 5 years (55 months on average across the book). There is no secondary market, and the platform says reselling the bonds is very uncertain and limited.
Our view
Return: Low. Investors have earned 5.05% a year after losses, below the 6.72% average rate. Risk: High (higher means more risk). The bonds are unsecured and one borrower's failure wiped out about 5% of everything raised, with more projects running late. Risk-return: Low. The return after losses is modest for unsecured lending with a real record of losses.
Regulation
License / Regulation: AMF (France), European crowdfunding service provider licence under Regulation (EU) 2020/1503, number FP-2022-2, granted 6 December 2022 to Enerfip SAS, which operates Lumo as the brand "Enerfip - Lumo".
Functionality
For Investors
For Fund Seekers
Useful Information
Yes. Lumo is a brand of Enerfip SAS, which holds an EU crowdfunding licence from the French regulator AMF, number FP-2022-2, since 6 December 2022.
Cash in your account is held by Lemonway, a payment institution authorised in France. It is kept apart from the platform's own money but carries no deposit guarantee.
EUR 50, the value of one bond.
The average rate across all projects is 6.72% a year, and investors have earned 5.05% a year after known losses (October 2026, before tax). Five bond issues of Gaussin SA, EUR 12.0 million, are in liquidation and will not be repaid, and 7 other projects were late.
Nothing. The bonds have no mortgage, guarantee, buyback or reserve fund, and bondholders are paid last if a borrower fails. In Lumo's largest failure, investors expect to get nothing back.
No. There is no secondary market, and the platform says reselling bonds is very uncertain. Plan to hold each bond for 3 to 5 years.
None. There are no entry, management or withdrawal fees for investors; project companies pay a commission of up to 7%.
Your bonds are claims on the project companies, not on the platform, and your cash is held at Lemonway. The project companies would still have to repay you; no compensation scheme covers the bonds.
Enerfip took over Lumo in late 2025. The former Lumo company was dissolved on 29 December 2025 and removed from the register in January 2026, and the platform now runs under Enerfip's licence as "Enerfip - Lumo".
For French tax residents, tax is deducted from interest at source. Investors elsewhere follow their own country's rules.
