International FinTech company builder FinLeap today launched its third FinTech venture, Valendo. Valendo provides loans secured against personal assets to both individuals and enterprises.
Valendo enables its clients to instantly turn their jewelry, luxury watches and precious metals into a flexible bridge loan. Clients can submit a request for a loan estimation within minutes on valendo.de.The loan is granted within 24 hours of the asset being received, once it has been evaluated by inhouse experts. The Valendo loan is thus faster and more flexible than a traditional bank loan. In addition, no credit check is performed and the credit agencies are not informed about the transaction. Despite the fact that 90 percent of the borrowers pay off their loans and interest to reclaim their pawned items, the noninvolvement of credit agencies ensures the protection from a negative credit score of the remaining few.
“A lot of small businesses, freelancers & entrepreneurs are struggling to get a shortterm bank loan due to strict criteria. Banks tend to refuse micro loans, as internal their processes are too extensive to be profitable”, explains cofounder and CEO Andreas von Buttlar. Since 2009 the access to credit in the eurozone is narrowing.
Andreas von Buttlar founded Valendo with Lars Bresan and the startup factory FinLeap. Prior to working on Valendo he was a fund manager at Flossbach von Storch AG for several years. Cofounder Bresan has more than twelve years of experience in the pawn business, most notably as a member of the management team of the German market leader in pawn broking, Exchange AG. In collaboration with FinLeap, they aim to build Valendo into the digital market leader in Europe.
Three out of four Germans own luxury goods such as highvalue jewelry or diamonds. In 2013 the market volume for jewelry and highvalue watches amounted to 4.73 billion Euros. As a result of the current low interest rate environment, material goods such as gold or diamonds are gaining significant popularity as assets. According to the German Pfandkreditverband, the German pawnbroking trade association, more than 1.8 million loans worth a total of 635 million Euro were granted by German pawn shops in 2013.
Lars Bresan: “The market for online asset lending is still in its infancy. We have the unique opportunity to turn Valendo into the market leader in Europe in the years to come. Within the next few years Valendo will help in turning using luxury assets as collateral into common practice.”