Stock Estate Analysis

Founded in 2023, Stock.estate is connecting investors with property projects in Romania. The platform also originates loans, providing commercial, residential, leisure and rental property owners access to loans for their project development or financing their existing projects. Stock.estate is licensed as a European Crowdfunding Service provider by the European Securities and Market Authority (ESMA), since the 29th of August 2023.^[1] The platform is also authorized by ASF (Romania) and registered by CONSOB in Italy.^[2]

Individuals over 18 can sign up for Stock.estate, but they need to verify their identity due to anti-money laundering rules. Stock.estate does not explicitly state, but we assume that the platform is open to E.U. and EEA residents.^[3] Since its launch recently, Stock.estate has raised about €310,000, with an average monthly volume of €60,000 in the last 5 months since start.^[4]

• Stock.estate connects investors with property development loans in Romania.
• The platform provides loans to real estate developers and property owners for commercial, residential, and vacation/leisure rental properties.
• Investments start at €100, with loan terms of 24 months among the listed campaigns.
• Stock.estate has offered interest rates ranging from 11.5% to 16% on the campaigns offered since launching the platform in late 2023. 

Stock.estate acts as a middleman connecting investors with real estate developers and property owners in need of capital to finance their projects. The platform issues loans for real estate development, and financing in commercial, residential and vacation/leisure rental properties.^[5] Stock.estate differs from most platforms by issuing loans through a legal structure where investors, borrowers, and the platform establish a direct legal relationship.^[6] Investors can invest in these loans, which start at a minimum of €100.^[7] However, investment might be capped depending on the investor’s status. Only lenders who are considered "sophisticated investors" can invest more than 10% of their net income.^[8]

Among all the listed campaigns, the investment duration is 24 months, with project targets ranging from €35,000 to €125,000 for active campaigns, and from €10,000 to €20,000 for funded campaigns. Stock.estate offers loans with and without collateral. Among the 7 funded campaigns, one had no collateral. The rest had collateral, with three backed by real estate, two by a guarantee letter, and one by suretyship. Both active campaigns are also collateralized, one with suretyship and the other with real estate backing.^[9]

Among the current listed campaigns, interest is paid every 6 months. Stock.estate does not offer a secondary market for investors to sell their investments before the term's completion, nor does it provide an auto-invest feature for queuing new investments.

Stock.estate deducts a 10% tax on interest earned on savings instruments. Additionally, the project developer also deducts a 10% tax, reducing the interest payout for individual investors upon maturity.^[10]

Among all the listed campaigns, Stock.estate offers interest rates ranging from 11.5% to 16%. However, being a relatively new platform, Stock.estate has not disclosed any statistics, such as total payouts to investors, overdue loan rates, and default rates.

Stock.estate charges investors 10% of the total interest gains on each investment, and imposes a 4% fee on the fundraising value from property developers or owners. The platform earns from both the percentage retained from the fundraising value and a percentage of the interest paid to investors.^[11]

Stock.estate was founded by Vicentiu Vlad and Alexandru Constantin. Vlad, an ex-army officer, serves as the current CEO, bringing strong leadership and over 10 years of entrepreneurship experience to the company. He holds two Master’s degrees: one in International Relations from Università degli Studi Niccolò Cusano, and another in Strategic Military Sciences from Università degli Studi di Torino. Constantin, the current CTO, brings over a decade of experience in software development and engineering. He notably spent 3 years at Deutsche Bank, starting as a software engineer and later transitioning to a role as a machine learning engineer. Also among the team, Barbu Nicolae, with a background in Finance, serves as the Country Manager for Romania.

The company behind the platform is StockEstate Crowdfunding SRL, founded in 2021 and headquartered in Bucharest, Romania.^[12]

StockEstate Crowdfunding SRL, the company behind Stock.estate, registered a marginal net profit of €76 in fiscal year 2022, down from the €82 net profit in its inception year, FY21. The company reported total assets of €662 and total liabilities of €463 in FY22.^[13] As of FY23, the company has not yet disclosed any further financial information. It is important to note that these financial statements were reported before the platform's launch in 2023.