Fintech lending platform Loanboox eyes French expansion

Award-winning Swiss fintech firm Loanboox is planning further expansion into Europe having obtained a foothold in Germany. The digital portal for matching institutions with investors plans a move into France and is also looking at other European markets.

The Zurich-based company started off operations in Switzerland 2016, linking public sector borrowers, such as cantons and cities, with investors (mainly banks, pension funds and insurance firms) to fund public works.

Having expanded its services to unsecured lending between financial institutions, Loanboox is now looking to add hospitals and energy companies to its client base while diversifying into new products.

“Speed is important in this market,” Chief Operations Officer Andi Burri told swissinfo.ch. “We have seen significant growth in Switzerland and now serve 100 cities in Germany. But we want to move quickly in other markets.”

Since its inception, Loanboox has now played a part in connecting around 1,000 clients and facilitating requests of some CHF9 billion ($9.5 billion) in public sector loan deals.

The agile fintech has made its mark by cutting out the middleman in the debt financing business, thus reducing time and costs for borrowers. Loanboox acts as a matchmaker between borrowers and investors, but has no part to play in the financial deal so no money passes through the platform.

This reduces the regulatory impact on its business, allowing the firm so far to slip agilely across borders between Switzerland and the vast European Union market.

Loanboox’s rapid growth saw the company crowned “growth stage start-up of the year” at the 2018 Swiss Fintech Awards earlier this month. “We are extremely proud and humbled by this award,” said Burri. “It serves to confirm our vision and plans to move along even faster in future.”