The Baltic region, which consists of the three countries in northern Europe on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea, namely Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, has seen its fintech scene grow significantly in the past few years.

One segment in particular is peer-to-peer lending and crowdfunding. Today, these countries host numerous platforms focusing on consumer lending, business loans and invoice factoring, among many other areas.

Here is our pick of the top eight most promising peer-to-peer lending and crowdfunding platforms in the Baltic states.

Viainvest

VIAINVEST is a new peer-to-peer lending marketplace provided by Latvia-based VIA SMS Group. The platform allows both individuals and companies to invest into loans originated by non-banking lenders.

Loans available on VIAINVEST are originated by the Via SMS Group and its associated companies operating across Europe. The VIA SMS Group is one of the leading alternative financial services providers in Europe offering consumer lending services, various savings products and payment card in Latvia, Sweden, Poland, Czech Republic and Spain.

After only 2 months of operations VIAINVEST reports  milestone of EUR 1 000 000 loans funded.

Twino

Twino is said to be the third the largest peer-to-peer consumer lending platform in Continental Europe.

The company operates in nine countries across the world and has issued more than 332 million EUR worth of loans. Previously known as Finabay, the company started operations in 2009 in Latvia.

Savy

Savy is a peer-to-peer consumer lending platform and the first service of its kind to be launched in the Lithuania back in 2014. The platform connects investors with borrowers across Europe and investors can get up to 25% return on investment.

Unlike other lending platforms, Savy does not use deposit account to collect money or distribute payments. The platform connects investors and borrowers directly via their bank accounts.

Mintos

Mintos is a peer-to-peer lending marketplace that connects investors with borrowers of non-bank lenders. It focuses on providing an easy and transparent alternative to the traditional banking system.

Mintos began operations in early 2015. As of November 2016, the platform had more than 15,000 registered investors from more than 50 countries and helped fund 88.6 million EUR worth of loans. The company is based in Riga, Latvia.

Hooandja

Launched 2012, Hooandja is the “Kickstarter of Estonia.” It is a crowdfunding platform where creative ideas can find support. The platform has over 43,000 regular contributors and its user base is from 180 countries. Hooandja has supported over 620 projects and helped raised over 1.9 million EUR.

Hooandja is headquartered in Estonia.

Fundwise

Fundwise is Estonia’s first equity-based platform for small to medium businesses in the Central and Eastern European region. The platform focuses on hardware, consumer products, ICT, energy and clean tech, and gaming projects.

Fundwise was built by the team behind Hooandja.

Investly

Launched in 2014, Investly is the first business peer-to-peer lending and invoice factoring platform in Estonia. Investly helps small business release cash tied up in invoices, helping them get working capital from investors globally.

The company has recently opened an office in London.

Bondora

Headquartered in Estonia, Bondora is a leading peer-to-peer lending platform for investing in European non-bank personal loans. All loans are issued by our parent company, Bondora AS, which retains a share of the risk of every loan it offers through the Bondora.com marketplace.

In 2014, Bondora secured a peer-to-peer lending license in the UK from the Financial Conduct Authority.