WeShareBonds continues to disrupt France’s lending sector by boosting SMEs.
The €12m fundraise was led by the platform’s partner and minority shareholder, La Banque Postale. Also in participation was La Banque Postale Assurance, La Mutuelle Générale, and 75 business angels.
The web-based crowdlending platform co-finances selected French SMEs’ unlisted bond issuances. It does this through both private and professional investors, as well as the WeShareBond’s team and shareholders.
WeShareBonds is just another example of the innovative approach many French crowdlenders are taking to create original lending models, in the face of fierce banking competition from French financial institutions.
Its digital competitors are also doing well. Platform-turned-bank Younited Credit raised €40m for European expansion in September, and marketplace lender Lendix announced a new loan product this week.
Commenting on the raise, co-founder and CEO, Cyril Tramon, said: “WeShareBonds remains true to its initial goal: sustain and develop the competitivity and dynamism of the French economy. Thanks to this new fundraising, WeShareBonds reinforces its position as a key player in the crowdlending market.”
The funds will be used to close the platform’s second credit fund for financing French SMEs at €10m, and a further equity increase of €2m. Since its creation in June 2016, WeShareBonds and its community of investors has already financed 15 SMEs in France, for an aggregate amount of €3.5m.
The new €10m buy and hold credit fund will invest in around 50 selected French SMEs over the next two years. Its first fund, which had its first closing in June 2016 and a second in November of the same year, will be fully invested by the second half of 2018.
