Lunar doubles down on lending as it acquires Swedish loan marketplace Lendify

Sweden’s largest loan marketplace Lendify has been acquired by new digital banking challenger on the block, Lunar.

The Nordic challenger bank is hoping to grow its consumer loan offering and expand its operations in Sweden thanks to its purchase of the alternative lender. 

While specific financial details of the acquisition are yet to be disclosed, Lunar will acquire Lendify’s loan book, which is worth around €300m with 40,000 active savings and loan customers. 

“Lendify has for several years been considered one of Sweden’s hottest fintechs and was an early innovator of consumer lending with their peer-to-peer platform,” Ken Villum Klausen, founder and CEO of Lunar Group said. 

“We want to augment our customer deposits and accelerate pan-Nordic growth, and Lendify is the perfect fit in terms of risk appetite, culture and future vision,” he added.

Rather than paying a lump sum for the Swedish alternative lender, Lunar has purchased all remaining shares of Lendify and will welcome all of Lendify’s investors and employees on board.

“This transaction will make a real impact in the market,” chairwoman of Lendify, Elisabet Lundgren, commented.

“Lunar and Lendify is a really good match and the combined entities will be well-positioned for continued strong growth as a challenger bank. Through the acquisition, Lunar will gain access to Lendify’s scalable technology platform and cutting-edge credit assessment process.”

For now, Lendify will continue to operate as an independent platform and loans will be originated under both brands, with the full integration happening over the coming months.

The transaction is still subject to regulatory approval but it’s expected to be completed in mid-May. 

Lunar’s acquisition of Lendify is its latest step towards becoming an all-encompassing financial platform for its 250,000 customers across Denmark, Sweden and Norway.

In December 2020, the digital bank launched a ‘pay later’ function for its customers, taking on buy-now-pay-later-giant Klarna and giving its customers the ability to split all transactions into four instalments retroactively or postpone a payment for up to 30 days.

At the beginning of November 2020, Lunar also took its first steps into the world of joint accounts, allowing its Premium and Pro customers to share their account with up to ten people in the Lunar app.