In 2013 a group of real estate and fintech experts based in Tallinn, Estonia, had an idea – what if they could break down the barriers that made investing in secured property loans a luxury only available to the wealthy and well-connected?
What if they could also help entrepreneurs and visionaries in the property development business who struggle with the ‘one-size-fits all’ solutions offered by banks and major financial institutions at the same time? Thus EstateGuru was born.
On Tuesday, EstateGuru announced that it has raised €5.8M in its Series A round of funding. According to the company, the current round exceeded its initial target by 260 per cent.
The current round of investment was led by TMT Investments Plc, a UK venture capital firm. The round also saw participation from Swiss venture capitals Verve Ventures and Swiss Immo Lab, and J&T IB and Capital Markets, the investment banking arm of the Czech investment bank J&T.
Marketplace for short-term, property-backed loans
Founded by Kaspar Kaljuvee, Marek Partel, and Marko Arro, EstateGuru is a marketplace facilitating property-backed loans for SMEs and selected investment opportunities for a global investor base. In simple terms, EstateGuru connects different service providers, SMEs, and investors into one single marketplace.
With a diversified investor base and millions of euros available to lend, EstateGuru’s borrowers can get money they need on their own terms and investors can access pre-vetted, cross-border investment opportunities with a low barrier to entry and total transparency.
Marek Pärtel explains, “we are developing a modern ecosystem for market participants and believe that very soon, traditional financiers will also prefer to use our platform in order to stay competitive.”
As of now, EstateGuru has facilitated more than 2,647 loans worth over €420M. Over 88,000 investors, hailing from 109 countries, have earned average returns of 11.39 per cent by backing property loans in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Spain, Germany, Sweden, and Finland.
EstateGuru’s team consists of 70 professionals from 13 different nationalities based in Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius, Helsinki, London, Berlin, and Amsterdam.
Recent funding
EstateGuru’s Series A round follows the company’s equity fundraising round on the crowdfunding platform Seedrs in May this year. Due to investor enthusiasm, the campaign had closed 31 days ahead of schedule, originally set to run for 40 days.
The campaign was launched in private mode for pre-registered investors on 5 May 2021 and raised the initial minimum target of €500K in just a few hours. Subsequently, the public part of the campaign went into the overfunding stage, reaching the initial intended maximum target of €1.1M by Sunday 9 May. Due to the high investor interest, it was decided to extend the target and the campaign was closed on 14 May, having raised a total of €1.3M from 971 investors.
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