Digilo CEO Zane Sniedze Interview

In this interview, we speak with Zane Sniedze, CEO of Digilo, about the launch of the platform, its focus on real estate-backed SME lending, how investment opportunities are evaluated, and the approach Digilo is taking to risk management and long-term growth.

For someone discovering Digilo for the first time, how would you explain what investors are actually investing in through the platform and how returns are generated?

Through Digilo, investors finance loans issued to SMEs, operating businesses, and self-employed persons who are looking to develop or expand their business activities. This can include, for example, self-employed IT specialists looking to develop their business, farmers developing their agricultural businesses, beauty professionals expanding their workspace, individual merchants, or limited liability companies investing in business growth.

Each project listed on Digilo is backed by real estate collateral, and the loan-to-value ratio does not exceed 60%. LTV shows the relationship between the loan amount and the market value of the pledged property. This approach provides an additional safety margin for investors. Investors earn returns through fixed interest payments and repayment of the loan principal according to the terms of each project.

Digilo is entering a market that already includes many established platforms with multi-year track records. Why did you decide to launch now, and what gap do you believe still exists for investors?

We believe there is still a clear gap for more conservative investors who are looking for fixed-income opportunities backed by real estate collateral. Many existing platforms are focused on consumer lending, payday loans, or loans backed by movable assets. Digilo takes a different approach by focusing on loans secured with real estate.

For us, the quality of collateral and the borrower’s commitment are essential. When a borrower is willing to pledge real estate, it shows a serious level of confidence in their business and responsibility. We believe this creates a more disciplined investment environment for investors who are not looking for maximum short-term returns, but rather stable, structured, and collateral-backed opportunities.

This model can be especially relevant for investors who are used to traditional bank products, but are looking for a structured, asset-backed alternative with higher expected annual returns of 9 to 12%, depending on the specific project. Digilo is built for investors who value transparency, real estate collateral, and disciplined growth over aggressive risk-taking.

Digilo is a newly launched platform, so investors are ultimately placing trust in the people behind it. What relevant experience does the team bring from investing, underwriting, credit analysis, or managing investment platforms?

Although Digilo is a new platform, the team behind us brings long-standing experience in lending, financing, legal structuring, and real estate-backed businesses. Digilo is built on more than 15 years of real lending experience in the Latvian market, including project evaluation, borrower assessment, loan structuring, and recovery processes.

Our management team includes four women in key leadership roles: myself as Chief Executive Officer, Kristiāna as Chief Financial Officer, Dana as Chief Legal Officer, and Kristīne as Chief Project Officer. Behind us is a wider team of innovative, responsible, and detail-oriented professionals who support the platform’s daily operations, technology, compliance, investor communication, and project management. Together, our team combines financial, legal, lending, risk assessment, and platform development expertise with a shared focus on building a transparent and trustworthy investment platform.

What measures has Digilo implemented to align its interests with investors and maintain disciplined risk management as the platform grows?

Digilo is built around stable, disciplined, step-by-step growth. From the beginning, our focus has been clear: to maintain the same project quality and risk standards today and in the future, even as the number of onboarded investors grows significantly.

We believe that careful growth is the only responsible way to build long-term trust. Digilo is not a platform that aims to onboard as many investors as possible without a clear strategy for maintaining quality. Every project must go through a structured screening process, and we generally accept projects with LTV up to 60%, backed by real estate collateral.

This approach helps us keep our interests aligned with investors. We do not publish projects simply to increase volume. Each opportunity must be carefully selected, professionally reviewed, and presented transparently. As Digilo grows, our priority will remain the same: quality before quantity, disciplined risk management, clear communication, and long-term trust.

How does Digilo source and evaluate investment opportunities before they are listed on the platform, and what are the most important risk factors you assess internally?

Digilo sources borrowers primarily through its long-established lending and real estate network, while borrowers can also apply directly through our website. Before any project is listed, it goes through a strict screening process led by experienced professionals with many years of lending and real estate-backed financing expertise.

Kristīne, our Chief Project Officer, is responsible for assessing which projects are suitable for Digilo. With more than 10 years of experience, she reviews the borrower, project structure, collateral, and overall platform fit. Each project is mortgage-backed and supported by certified independent valuation. We also use available verification tools and databases to assess the borrower’s financial position, obligations, credit history, legal status, and repayment capacity.

The main risks we assess are whether the borrower can meet its obligations, whether the collateral is sufficient and liquid, and whether the overall loan structure is sustainable. Our team’s secured lending operations have had zero capital loss to date, and we apply the same disciplined standards to every Digilo project.

Many investors focus heavily on projected returns, but downside protection is equally important. If a borrower fails to repay or a project underperforms, what should investors realistically expect from the recovery and enforcement process?

If a borrower fails to repay, Digilo follows a structured recovery process in line with Latvian law and the platform’s legal documentation. The first step is direct communication with the borrower and a clear assessment of the situation. If the issue cannot be resolved, Digilo initiates recovery and enforcement measures.

Each Digilo project is secured by real estate collateral, which gives investors a clear recovery path. If needed, the pledged property can be sold through the legal enforcement process, including auction, and recovered funds are distributed to investors according to the applicable loan documentation. Throughout the recovery process, investors are informed about the progress and key steps being taken as our structure is designed so that investors are not left without a recovery mechanism.

While every investment carries risk and recovery may take time, we believe the combination of conservative LTV, real estate collateral, and disciplined project selection provides strong downside protection, with extreme market circumstances being the main situations that could affect full recovery.

How is Digilo regulated today, and what practical protections or limitations does that regulatory structure create for investors using the platform?

Digilo operates under an ECSP crowdfunding service provider licence issued by Latvijas Banka. This means the platform is regulated under the European crowdfunding framework and must follow requirements related to transparency, investor information, due diligence, risk warnings, conflicts of interest, and platform operations.

For investors, this creates a more structured and transparent environment compared with unregulated investment offerings. Investors receive project information, risk disclosures, and access to a regulated platform framework.

Investor payments and wallet infrastructure are handled through Lemonway, an established European payment institution. Client funds are held separately from Digilo’s own funds, which adds an additional layer of operational security and transparency to the investment process.

What are the most important milestones Digilo must achieve over the next 12 months for you to consider the launch phase successful?

For us, success in the first 12 months is not only about funding volume. Of course, reaching approximately EUR 3 million in funded volume would be an important milestone, but our bigger goal is to build the platform in the right way.

We want to prove that Digilo can grow while keeping the same quality, discipline, and transparency in every project we publish. It is important for us to build a stable repayment culture and to create a platform where both investors and borrowers feel informed, comfortable, and confident communicating with us.

Feedback will be one of the most important indicators of success. We want investors and borrowers to feel that Digilo is not just a platform, but a long-term partner. Building trust, strong relationships, and open communication is what will define whether the launch phase has truly been successful for us.