Lendermarket Stars series are developed for all of us to learn something new from success stories. In this blog series, we highlight the investment journeys of our investors, as well as financial bloggers and influencers.
For this article, we talked with Jakub Krejci a real P2P investments professional as well as the founder of P2P Empire. Jakub shares knowledge in investment through different channels like a blog, youtube channel, and others.
Tell us a bit about yourself and what you do?
My background is in international business and finance. After finishing my studies in Austria, I was recruited to work for a multinational IT company. Soon after starting this role, I realized that it was not a good fit for me, so I decided to leave and begin pursuing jobs that would allow me to work from anywhere. In 2016, I was given the chance to develop a German website that covered personal finance topics. During that time, I became familiar with the concept of P2P lending.
After learning about P2P lending, I wanted to dive deeper into this asset class, so I founded P2P Empire – an independent website that compares various investment platforms, mainly within the P2P lending space. My day consists of various tasks, including managing my team, recording videos, and talking to CEOs from different platforms.
What were your goals when you started your business?
My goal was, and still is, to educate investors about P2P lending. Fortunately, this has resonated with thousands of investors, which is why P2P Empire is one of the most recognized and trusted brands that report on the P2P lending industry. Also, we have recently launched a German version of our website for our Germany-based readers.
How did you hear about Lendermarket?
Thanks to my current role, I am relatively well informed about current events within the P2P industry. When a lending company launches its platform, news spreads quickly.
How do you like Lendermarket compared to other investment platforms? What is it that you like most about the platform?
Most investors will say that the high returns are the most appealing aspect of Lendermarket’s platform. Not many platforms can offer yields of up to 15% per year. However, I am a very risk-oriented investor, so for me, it’s more important to get an insight into how the platform is performing every month and how it can deal with challenging situations. Due to this, the monthly portfolio update is something that I am a huge fan of.
Do you recommend others to invest in P2P?
I think that P2P loans are a profitable and relatively stable asset class. It’s an excellent option for investors who do not wish to deal with the volatility inherent to the stock market and crypto space. However, there are a lot of risk factors that investors have to consider when investing in P2P loans. Overall though, I would say that I recommend investing in P2P loans as long as the investor has educated themselves about how these products work – but this can apply to any asset class. I would advise against sending money to a P2P platform that promotes high yields without first conducting proper due diligence.
Do you think people invest differently in the Czech Republic compared to the rest of Europe? If so, how and why?
It depends on what you define as the “rest of Europe”. I would say that “investing” is not as popular in the Czech Republic compared to other countries. Many people tend to keep their money in savings accounts – which is not an optimal strategy if you are looking to fight inflation. Roughly a third of Czech people invest in stocks or investment funds, followed by retirement savings plans. P2P lending is not very popular in the Czech Republic. One should also keep in mind that the income in various European countries and the taxation varies greatly, which obviously has an impact on the asset classes that people invest in.
What is your advice for beginners on how to invest?
The most important advice I can give is to understand your investments and their corresponding risks.
And more specifically, if you could give any advice to someone starting out with Lendermarket, what would it be?
After reading our review, you should have a rough idea of how the Lendermarket platform works. In terms of investment strategies, it really depends on your investment goal and your appetite to expose yourself to consumer loans from various countries. Lendermarket offers loans from the Baltics and Nordics, which is unique compared to other platforms that provide loans mainly from emerging markets in Asia or Eastern Europe.
What changes do you expect in the P2P lending market in the next five years?
That’s a difficult question to answer, as the P2P lending space is changing rapidly. As we can see already, the taxation of crowdfunding platforms in Lithuania or P2P marketplaces in Latvia is becoming an issue for P2P investors. Regulators want investors to pay taxes in the country where they invest, which could mean that some investors will prefer to invest on unregulated platforms based in Estonia, Ireland, or Croatia and tax their earnings in their home country.
What do you think about the interview, do you have questions for Jakub or Lendermarket? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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