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Estateguru Analysis

Real Estate Debt
Real Estate Crowdfunding

Last updated in March 2024.

What is Estateguru?

Estateguru is a platform based in Estonia, launched in 2014. It is licensed by the Estonian Financial Supervision and Resolution Authority (Finantsinspektsioon) as a European crowdfunding service provider, allowing the platform to operate across all EU member states. Estateguru facilitates financing for property developers across several European countries such as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, and previously also Germany by connecting SMEs, and investors with property-backed loans. Estateguru offers three types of products: development loans, bridge loans, and business loans.

Companies and individuals are allowed to invest on the platform when they have a bank account in any of the European Economic Area (EEA) member states or Switzerland.[1] Since its launch, Estateguru has raised over €791.50 million, maintaining an average monthly volume of €7.83 million over the past twelve months.[2] The platform hosts a community of 160,884 investors.[3]

Key Takeaways

  • Estateguru provides property-backed loans, categorized into three product types: development loans, bridge loans, and business loans.
  • Investments start at a minimum of €50, with loan durations for current campaigns ranging from 12 to 18 months.
  • Estateguru currently offers interest rates between 9% and 11.5%, with repayment options including bullet loans and full bullet loans.
  • Estateguru reports high default rates on the investments with 17.32% of the historic loan portfolio and 50.18% of the outstanding portfolio being in default.

How Estateguru Works

Estateguru offers investment opportunities in property-backed business loans and European short-term property-backed loans. These loans are organized into three types of products. Historically, development loans represent 41% of the platform’s offerings, bridge loans 40%, and business loans 18%. These debt instruments are backed with real estate collateral and a mortgage established on the collateral property.[4] The collateral can be real estate, with a loan-to-value (LTV) ratio of up to 75%.[5] Among the active campaigns, Estateguru loans range from €81,420 to €1 million.[6] You can conveniently browse all historic and live Estateguru campaigns directly at P2PMarketData.

The minimum investment is €50 per project and the loan durations for current campaigns range from 12 to 18 months. Among the active campaigns, two have a repayment schedule every three months, seven have a monthly schedule, and one is a full bullet loan, which entails repayment of interests and principal at the end of the loan term.

Estateguru offers a secondary market where lenders can exit their investments early. The platform also offers an auto-invest feature to queue new investments.

Estateguru Returns & Fees

Among the current 10 active campaigns, Estateguru offers interest rates ranging from 9% to 11.5%.[7] Since its inception, the platform has returned €459,17 million in principal and paid out €76.55 million in interest. Estateguru reports a 0.61% late payment rate in its loan portfolio, with 1.22% of total loans partially recovered. The platform experiences a high total default rate of 17.32% with 5.11% fully recovered, while 50.18% of the outstanding portfolio is in default.[8]

Estateguru imposes various fees on investors, including a €1 service fee for each withdrawal. Additionally, an AUM fee of 0.05% is charged on Performing Outstanding Principal. Inactive accounts, that maintain a positive balance without engaging in new investments for over 12 months, are subject to a monthly fee. On the secondary market, the platform charges sellers a 3% fee for selling claims. On the fundraisers’ side, EstateGuru charges 3-4% for successful funding and 0-2% in annual admin fees. Delays in repayment incur borrower penalty fees. Primarily, Estateguru generates revenue via brokerage and commission fees from borrowers.[9]

Estateguru Management

Marek Pärtel and Julian Kaljuvee co-founded Estateguru. Pärtel still serves as the company’s Chairman. In addition to his role at Estateguru, he is an angel investor and advisor at Swapin, Frictionless Markets, KanvasAI, and Consorto, specializing in fintech, art investment, and real estate. Mihkel Stamm is the CEO of Estateguru. Previously, he served as the Head of the Crowdfunding Area at FinanceEstonia, contributing to supporting the Estonian economy. João Monteiro is Estateguru’s member of the Supervisory Board, bringing over a decade of experience in investing and supporting startups in FinTech, LogTech, Retail, and HealthTech. He is also the Founding Principal of Pinto Ventures AG.

Estateguru Holding OÜ holds 100% control of Estateguru, with its largest shareholders being Meb Trust OÜ (17.52%), Euro Holding OÜ (17.23%), and Sparkle (11.09%). Meb Trust is wholly owned by Kristjan-Thor Vähi, Euro Holding by co-founder Marek Pärtel, and Sparkle is owned by both Vähi and Pärtel at 37.48% and 62.52%, respectively.[10]

Special Considerations

Estateguru has raised a total of €12.7 million through 11 rounds of funding. Their latest undisclosed round concluded on March 22, 2023.[11] Key investors include Matteo Gamba, Pario Ventures, J&T IB and Capital Markets, Verve Ventures, Constructive Venture Fund, TMT Investments, and Pinto Ventures, across Series A and Venture Rounds. The platform has launched several crowdfunding campaigns for the company itself and raised more than €3.5 million through the equity crowdfunding platform Seedrs from nearly 2500 investors.[12]

Estateguru unveils its strategic plans for 2024 to consolidate its position in current markets while focusing on reducing defaults, particularly in Germany. The company aims to double its monthly loan volume from €10 million to €20 million and has integrated Moody’s Analytics onto the platform. Instead of expanding into new territories, Estateguru prioritizes deepening its market penetration within existing regions, leveraging its product offerings and focusing on untapped market share. The platform aims for fewer defaults and timely project completions. Estateguru is also launching its mobile app, expected for Q3 2024.[13]

Article Sources

  1. Estateguru: “Who can invest on Estateguru?
  2. P2PMarketdata: “Estateguru Statistics
  3. Estateguru: “Investors
  4. Estateguru: “How is my investment secured?
  5. Estateguru: “Development loan conditions
  6. Estateguru: “Latest Loans - Amount
  7. Estateguru: “Latest Loans - Interest
  8. Estateguru: “Statistics
  9. Estateguru: “Price list
  10. Estonia E-Business Register: “Estateguru Holding OU
  11. Crunchbase: “Estateguru - Financials
  12. Seedrs: “Estateguru on Seedrs
  13. Estateguru: “A mid-year update from our CEO