Investing on Lendahand is easy and takes just a few simple steps. Watch the video below or read through the steps.

Log in: Visit www.lendahand.com and log in to your account.

Explore Projects: Navigate to the 'Projects' section in the menu and browse the available projects. Choose the one you want to invest in and click on 'Invest now' to learn more about it.

Choose Investment Amount: Click on 'Select amount' and choose the amount you wish to invest in the selected project.

Add to Basket: Click on 'Put project in basket' to add your investment to the basket.

Review Your Basket: Click on the basket next to your name at the top right of the screen. You can add multiple projects with different investment amounts to your basket and pay for it all together. Click on ‘Add investments’ to explore this option. Take a moment to review the contents of your basket, ensuring everything is as you want it.

Proceed to Checkout: Redeem any coupon code you may have in this step. Click on 'Pay now' to proceed to the checkout process. Choose your preferred payment method for the investment.

Complete Payment: Click on 'Check out' and follow the instructions provided by your bank to complete the payment.

Confirmation Email: Once the payment is successful, you will receive an email confirming your investment.

Congratulations! You have successfully made an impact investment on Lendahand. You will be informed about the progress of your investment via email and the Financial Dashboard in your account.

Anyone at least 18 years old and with a valid bank account can invest via Lendahand. Whether you're an individual investor or a company, you're welcome to join our crowdfunding platform and make a positive impact with your investments.

You’re eligible to invest if you have an identification document from one of the EER (European Economic Area) countries. The EER countries include Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and The Netherlands.

Please ensure you comply with any legal and tax requirements that may apply in your country of residence before investing.

Verifying your identity and bank account is legally required by the European Law for Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention (WWFT). This ensures the highest level of security and compliance on our crowdfunding platform.

Identity verification

During the identification process, we only use your ID for verification purposes. Rest assured, your citizen service number (BSN) and other information on the ID will not be visible to us, ensuring your privacy and data protection.

To facilitate this process, you will be redirected to our trusted partner, Onfido. Onfido's advanced software allows for real-time verification by comparing your ID with a picture of yourself. This can be either a picture you upload or a selfie you take with your smartphone.

The verification process helps us ensure the accuracy and legitimacy of your identity.

Bank account verification

We use our payment service provider Intersolve to securely check your bank details.

If your bank account is from the Netherlands, we use Surepay to quickly validate your IBAN number.

If your bank account is from another country, we ask you to upload a bank statement. This can take some time to review. You’ll receive an email once the verification is successful or in case we need additional information.

Complying with these regulations helps create a safe and secure environment for all our users while preventing misuse of the platform for illicit purposes.

To verify your identity, you will be asked to upload a picture of yourself or take a selfie using your smartphone. Our trusted partner Onfido, performs real-time checks to ensure that you are the same person as shown on the document.

Having trouble? Please ensure:

- your ID/Passport was issued by a supported country

- your scan or photo is clear and free from glares

- the selfie you are uploading is a JPG or JPEG file format, as PDF is not supported for selfies

For a successful bank account validation, it is important that the name on your bank account matches the name you have provided in your personal details.

If you need assistance during the verification process, don't hesitate to reach out to our support team at [email protected]

At Lendahand, we take the security and privacy of your personal data very seriously. Your private and payment details are treated with the utmost care and are subject to strict safety requirements.

To ensure the safety of your sensitive data, all information is transmitted through an encrypted connection (https). This encryption protocol helps protect your data from unauthorized access during transmission.

Moreover, we store your information in a secure facility provided by AWS, the world's largest hosting service known for its robust security measures. The data is stored in an encrypted format, adding an extra protection layer.

Access to customer documents is tightly controlled through multi-factor authentication, ensuring that only authorized personnel can retrieve and access this sensitive information.

Rest assured that we implement rigorous measures to safeguard your personal data, aiming to maintain the highest security and privacy standards.

Review our Privacy Statement here

If you have any further questions or concerns regarding the handling and protection of your personal data, don't hesitate to reach out to our support team at [email protected]

When you log into Lendahand, you'll directly access the Financial Dashboard. There, you can find the annual overview at the bottom of the page under Downloads.

For private investors in the Netherlands, loans issued through the Lendahand platform fall under Box 3.

Enter the outstanding amounts as of January 1 of any year under 'Bank accounts and other assets' and then under 'Loaned money and other receivables'.

Your possible wallet balance is listed separately on the annual statement. This amount can also be filled in under 'Bank accounts and other assets', but then under 'Bank and savings accounts'.

If you have also invested in dollar projects (where the investments in euros are eventually transferred in dollars to the borrower), you will find these outstanding amounts in the annual overview as well. These dollar investments are converted into euros at the rate of December 31 of the respective year.

For corporate lenders (BV's), the earned returns are taxed with corporate income tax.

If you are a taxpayer in a country other than the Netherlands, it's recommended to consult local tax advisors on how to declare outstanding funds from a crowdfunding platform in your tax return, ensuring compliance with the legal and tax obligations of your country of residence.

Lendahand currently does not report your outstanding amounts to the tax authorities. Should this policy change in the future, rest assured, we will notify you well in advance.

Investing with Lendahand is free. You don't pay any membership or fixed fees to invest, regardless of the payment method you choose.

You choose in which projects you want to invest, and on Lendahand, you have the choice between projects in euros, US dollars, and local currencies. You always invest in euros, and you always receive your repayments in euros.

What about potential conversion costs? Well, for projects in euros and local currencies, you don't pay any conversion costs. Lendahand and the borrower take care of that. For projects in US dollars, the conversion costs from euro to dollar are charged to the borrower. However, once the borrower repays (a part of) the investment, you as an investor pay 0.30% conversion costs. Those are the only costs you need to consider when investing through Lendahand.

Do you have questions?

Check our currencies page

For further questions, contact our support team at [email protected]

Paying for your investments on Lendahand is designed to be convenient and hassle-free. We offer multiple payment options to cater to your preferences:

iDeal, Bancontact, and Sofort: Investors within the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany can pay using these methods, all of which are free of charge.

Credit Cards: Investors outside the Netherlands can use credit cards like Mastercard, Visa, and Carte Bancaire for payments. There are no additional fees for this option.

Bank Transfer: You can transfer money directly from your bank account to your Lendahand wallet. Use the following details for the transfer:

Beneficiary: DERDENGELDEN FEET

IBAN: NL72ABNA0492265631

Bank: ABN AMRO

BIC/SWIFT: ABNANL2A

Description: Wallet XXX [Make sure to add your personal wallet number here. Please request your wallet number by reaching out via [email protected]]

We aim to ensure a secure and diverse range of payment choices, enabling you to seamlessly participate in impactful investments. Should you have any questions or need assistance during the payment process, feel free to reach out via [email protected]

We understand that circumstances may change and want to give you flexibility and control over your investments.

You have the option to cancel your investment within 4 days (96 hours) after receiving the confirmation email of your investment. If you decide to cancel, please email [email protected]

Upon cancellation, the invested amount will be returned to your Lendahand wallet. From there, you can choose to keep the funds in your wallet for future investments or transfer them back to your bank account.

If you have any questions about the cancellation process or need assistance, feel free to reach out to us.

Yes, you can invest as a company on Lendahand. When creating your account, simply choose the option ‘For a company - a business account’.

Create Business Account

For investors who wish to invest more, we offer Impact+ Private Investing

Do you wish to invest more significant amounts? Impact+ is our exclusive private investing product designed for investors who wish to invest €25,000 or more in our impactful projects.

With Impact+, Lendahand takes care of handling the investments on your behalf, providing a convenient and efficient investment experience. The best part is that no additional costs are associated with using Impact+.

If you're interested, we invite you to reach out through the form on the Impact+ page here.

Learn more about Impact+

The annual interest rate on investments varies from 2-8%, depending on the type of investment.

Everyone who invests via Lendahand has a personal account: My Lendahand. Repayments, including interest, are transferred to this account every six months. You can choose to reinvest your repayments or have them transferred to your bank account at no extra cost. Want to change your wallet settings? Go to Settings

Your investments are paid back in equal amounts on a semi-annual basis. For instance, an investment with a maturity of 12 months will be repaid in two parts. You’ll receive payments after 6 and 12 months, including interest. In the next example, we’ll show how principal and interest payments are calculated.

Suppose you invest € 1,000 in project A which is interest-bearing as of 1 January 2023. The loan has a maturity of 12 months and pays an annualized interest rate of 3%.

- On July 15th 2023, you will receive the first repayment of € 500 as well as an interest payment of 3% over € 1,000 for that 6 month period (€ 15). The total amount for thefirst period is € 515

- On Jan 15th 2024, you will receive the second repayment of € 500, as well as an interest payment of 3% over the outstanding notional of (€ 1,000 - € 500) for that 6 month period (€ 7.50). The total payment for the second period is € 507.50

Yes. The effective interest rates at Lendahand varies between 2-8% on an annual basis and are paid on the notional amount that is sent to the company. No interest is paid on amounts that have been repaid to the investor.

Anywhere from 6 to 48 months in 6 month intervals.

- In case of payments in arrear, a new payment schedule is drawn up (with or without other creditors) together with the investee. We also call this restructuring. In such situations, the interest that should be paid back in any month is in principle deposited into your wallet. For the notional amount, the following principle counts: the longest outstanding amounts will be repaid first. The new payment schedule will also be integrated into your My Lendahand environment. 

- When an investee indicates that it is no longer able to meet its payment obligation, all investors become competing creditors, and should there be any return of funds, these are distributed pro-rata among those investors. In your My Lendahand environment the concerning projects are placed under Written-off investments.

The risk varies depending on the type of project and the borrower you invest in. Investments in financial institutions are partially protected. The risk of bankruptcy and currency fluctuations (for investments in euro projects) is largely covered by the financial institution. In addition, they spread the investment across multiple, diverse SMEs. Investing in a financial institution yields an annual interest rate between 4% - 7%. The credit score of these loans is A or B (on a scale from A to E). The historical write-off percentage since 2013 for this investment category is 0.37%. Of course, this is no guarantee for future investments.

Direct investments in companies carry higher bankruptcy risks not covered by an intermediary, thus higher than investments in financial institutions. However, currency fluctuations (on euro projects) are covered. Direct investment in a company yields an annual interest rate between 5% - 9%. The credit score of these loans is B (on a scale from A to E). The historical write-off percentage since 2013 for this investment category is around 5%.

In case of difficulties or bankruptcies of borrowers, Lendahand will do everything possible to handle outstanding investments to the best of its ability.

If Hands-on BV (i.e., Lendahand) goes bankrupt, all transactions between Lendahand and Intersolve EGI will stop immediately. Intersolve will then transfer the money in your personal wallet to your bank account.

This does not apply to money still outstanding with borrowers. In that case, Intersolve, in consultation with a curator, will handle all outstanding repayments to investors until the last repayment of the last project is done.

Have questions about the risks? Contact us at [email protected].

In addition to a social mission, every borrower must have a 'track record' proving they are a reliable credit provider for local SMEs. This means, for example, that they need a solid credit portfolio, sufficient buffers, and equity to absorb unforeseen setbacks. We also check the organizational structure of every potential borrower.

When currency exchange risk becomes too high for a borrower, Lendahand will urge them to cover these risks. In some scenarios, companies offering projects on the platform are contractually obligated to do so.

More about currencies

An extensive selection procedure and due diligence precede the financing received by companies through Lendahand. More information about the risks per project can be found on the individual project pages. However, these analyses are not investment advice.

More about the selection procedure

Lendahand only offers loans with a credit score of A or B (on a scale from A to E).

If you would like more information on the financial indicators we use, please contact us at [email protected].

Despite our efforts to minimize risks, your investment is not guaranteed. There is a risk of partial or total loss of your invested money. Therefore, never invest money that you cannot afford to lose.

As part of specific campaigns, Lendahand sometimes offers guarantees under certain conditions up to a certain investment amount. Read the terms of the current campaign here for more information.

Guarantee terms

The Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) strongly advises not to invest more than 10% of your freely investable assets via crowdfunding. Furthermore, it is highly recommended to diversify investments across different borrowers.

Borrowers

The credit score, on a scale from A to E, reflects the creditworthiness and the likelihood of repayment by a borrower. It helps you, as an investor, to understand and weigh the risks before investing your money. Scores A and B indicate lower risks and are the only scores accepted by Lendahand, to maximize the chance of successful repayments.

Read more

We want to be the cheapest alternative for the companies that need funding. Providing mesocredits to entrepreneurs in often rural areas is a very labour intense process. It is comparable with the cost structure of microcredits. A huge number of loans with a relatively small size puts quite some administrative pressure on local partners. Also, these loans have to be monitored and obviously repayments have to be collected at the right time at the right place. Furthermore, partners have to pay local taxes and they have to take a provision at their balance sheet for possible non-repayments.

Since our SMEs do not have access to micro credits or bank loans, they often need to borrow from 'loan sharks' that may charge more than 100% interest per year. Even if they had access to micro credits, they would still be paying 30-50% annually. According to the New York Times (2010), the global average interest rate for microfinance loans is 37%.

On average, our SMEs pay around 1-3% interest per month. Lendahand will launch new propositions structurally for which the central theme is lowering the interest entrepreneurs have to pay.

Our local partners screen applicants thoroughly. The potential client must be or have:

Our local partners will never finance the following projects:

Small and medium sized enterprises, 2-100 employees, in the area of farming, retail, wholesale, production or services. Applicants should have a 'moral compass' and have to prove they want the best for the enterprise, people, the community and the environment.

Choose a project

Our local partners are so-called NBFI's, Non-Bank Financial Institutions. These are financial entities without a banking license that provides financial services while under regional or national supervisory institutions’ supervision.

Every local partner must share our social mission to ensure local entrepreneurs can access affordable financing, allowing them to grow their business. A local partner must also have a 'track record'; they must have proven themselves as a reliable credit provider for SMEs. For instance, this means a solid credit portfolio and enough buffers and equity to compensate for unexpected downturns. We also check the organizational structure of the company and how robust their (internal) procedures are. Finally, the investments must be in proportion to the total balance of that company. A healthy balance between effectuating influence and being independent is crucial. If you would like to receive more information on the financial indicators we employ, please contact us via [email protected].

One of the essential criteria Lendahand has regarding local partners is that they must have a social mission. If commercial gains are prioritized at the expense of social impact, an institution will not be considered for a partnership with Lendahand.

Yes. Even though research on our investments’ impact is very time consuming and expensive, our local partners execute impact studies where they can. We also ask our partners to give an estimate of the expected effects when uploading a new request.

Yes. We believe this is important because many small companies need the money on short notice. For example when the company receives a large order and needs to hire more people. Lendahand has a 100% funding rate, however it is possible that a project has been pre-funded by the local partner but does not get fully funded on the Lendahand website. In that case, the local partner will use alternative sources of funding for that specific project.

Lendahand has a payment policy based on the Dutch Law remuneration policies of financial undertakings. The policy applies to all employees of Lendahand and is aimed at ensuring that employees rewards do not pose any undesirable risks and/or behaviour to the sustainability of Lendahand.

Remuneration Lendahand pays all employees a fixed monthly income, which is not dependent on targets. Employees do obtain options. The management of Lendahand earns an average income of EUR 65,000 gross per year (2021).
We do not work with guaranteed variable remuneration

The decision on remuneration policy

The remuneration policy is drawn up by the management. Because Lendahand is a relatively small enterprise a remuneration committee will not be set up. However, the remuneration policy is aligned with the Supervisory Board annually.

Adjusting policy

Lendahand creates new jobs in emerging markets and enables people to improve their access to basic needs. This way, we contribute to the UN’s following Sustainable Development Goals:

1 no poverty

2 zero hunger

6 clean water and sanitation

7 affordable and clean energy

8 decent work and economic growth

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by all United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030.

Mexico, Indonesia, Kenya, India, Mongolia, Kirgizie, Moldavia, Peru, to name a few. Every year we add more countries to our portfolio, see our partner page.

View partners

Lendahand is the only crowdfunding platform where you can invest in SMEs in upcoming economies and sustainable initiatives at an interest rate between 2-7% per year.

Our borrowers (issuers) pay an average interest rate of 7,8% per year to Lendahand. Consequently we pay on average 4,25% interest to our funders. Our gross margin is around 3% (and maximized at 4%).

Possible debt instruments officially termed “Notes” are issued to the crowd (also called investors) when they want to invest via Lendahand. These notes are similar to bonds but cannot be resold.

The provider of the debt instruments to the public is called an ‘issuer.’ At Lendahand, these are either the financial institutions that finance the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in emerging countries, or entrepreneurs that raise capital on our platform themselves. Issuers only access the Lendahand website for projects when they comply with the admission requirement and quality standards beforehand. This includes the acceptance of the conditions for using the platform.

The crowd can select one or more projects (propositions) that he/she can finance by purchasing notes (or similar instruments) worth €50 each. Once the payment of the investor is successful, the purchase agreement is established. This agreement is entered under the condition precedent that the project (the proposition) will meet enough registrations. Investors accept the Terms and Conditions in which the purchase agreement takes part. Once the proposal is fully funded, the condition precedent is completed, and the notes are issued to the investors who have registered to the respective proposition. There are no exemption rights with regards to investments in requests. All investments are done via the website and are handled automatically and in order of entry.

Download the complaint form.

Complaint form

If Hands-on BV (containing the brand name Lendahand) went bankrupt, all transactions between Lendahand and payment service provider Intersolve EGI would cease immediately. Intersolve will then transfer the funds in your personal wallet to your bank account.

This does not apply to money that is still outstanding with borrowers. In consultation with a trustee, Intersolve will then handle the settlement of all outstanding repayments to investors, until the final repayment of the last project has been made.

Since obtaining the ECSP license, Hands-on BV/Lendahand is no longer part of the Dutch Investor Compensation Scheme, 'Beleggerscompensatiestelsel' (BCS).

Lendahand collaborates with Stichting Derdengelden Intersolve EGI, a Dutch financial institution specialized in payment settlements and managing electronic money. This collaboration ensures that Lendahand complies with strict financial laws and regulations. Intersolve EGI is supervised by De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) and the Authority for Financial Markets (AFM), and holds a license as an electronic money institution and payment institution. The collaboration guarantees a safe and reliable handling of your investments.

Your invested money is placed in a secured bank account until the project you are investing in is fully funded. Intersolve has no access to these funds. Once a project is fully financed, the money is transferred to the loan recipient (the borrower).

Most of our local partners hedge currency fluctuations against their local currency (in which they generate revenues and pay their expenses). Typically, Lendahand also agrees with the local partner the maximum amount of unhedged loans. With the USD loans, some companies will no longer have to hedge, as their local currencies are pegged to the US Dollar. This means they do not fluctuate against the USD (whereas they do fluctuate against the euro). iBanFirst could technically hedge the EUR-USD exchange rate up to two years, but this is something we currently do not offer.