Explore how innovative growth strategies can help your business expand globally and generate €5 billion in annual loans within just three years.

EstateGuru is the leading Pan-European marketplace for property-backed loans. Founded in 2013 with the purpose of facilitating access to secured property loans to the common investor and helping small property development businesses find adapted financing, it is now expanding its investor’s base thanks to cross-border financing. 

In order to pursue an ambitious expansion strategy while growing its business in core countries, EstateGuru needed a strong payment partner with a reliable technical solution and a deep knowledge of local regulations and regulators in specific geographies for future growth. 

A perfect match was found with Lemonway. Both fast-growing tech companies, there was a common understanding of the challenges faced by EstateGuru, thus making this project a constructive collaboration.

Today, EstateGuru is ready to conduct its growth strategy equipped with a solution offering the right market coverage, an excellent track record as a licensed Payment System Provider (PSP) since 2012 and a mature yet evolutive and flexible technical solution

About EstateGuru, a marketplace bridging the gap in property finance with property-backed loans for SMEs

EstateGuru has currently facilitated the funding of over 510M€ with an average return of 11,4%. The platform expects to reach 5bn€ by 2025.

Behind this proprietary digital platform designed to improve deal sourcing, increase underwriting quality, and reduce the operational cost of lending, there is a team of 100+ professionals from 13 different countries. Based in Tallinn (HQ), Riga, Vilnius, Helsinki, London, Berlin and Amsterdam, EstateGuru’s real estate professionals conduct complex, data-driven risk analyses before releasing projects on the platform to ensure minimal risk.

EstateGuru aims at fundamentally changing the way funding is handled in the real estate market.  Already the investor’s portfolio is a mix of private and institutional investors, and soon, traditional players such as banks are expected to join in, attracted by the pool of healthy borrower’s, the clean capital loss track record and high yields.

Why did EstateGuru choose Lemonway to handle all national and cross-border payment services?

EstateGuru’s strategy is to leverage one of its major strengths which is to provide a wide investor’s base thanks to borderless financing. However, expanding geographically also means that EstateGuru must be licensed in each country and fulfil mandatory AML/CTF (anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing) compliance if it wants to handle payment services 
directly.

EstateGuru's main criteria for selecting a PSP

Behind the defined criteria to select the perfect PSP laid a long-term outlook and all options were evaluated against EstateGuru’s strategic plans. The services had to fully cover the existing needs and be able to adapt to the growth and expansion of the marketplace. 

This implied a deep knowledge of local regulations and regulators in the markets in which EstateGuru operates and plans to expand as well as a capacity to adapt technically to arising needs. The technical maturity of the service provider’s solution and the complexity of integration with the EstateGuru solution as well as the implementation cost and pricing structure was also key  in the decision.

The main advantages of the Lemonway solution

• Adequate market coverage.
  Lemonway is well established in Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, Germany and the United Kingdom. These are the markets on which EstateGuru is focusing for its future growth.
• Strong technical solution
  Since it has obtained ACPR Payment Institution license, Lemonway’s solution has evolved to better serve the marketplace and crowdfunding sector. It is reliable, adaptable, and cost-effective to implement. 
• Excellent track record
  Lemonway has a long-term experience and an excellent track record and expertise as a payment service provider addressing financial marketplace and crowdfunding platforms across Europe
• Partnering attitude & easy communication
  The Lemonway team is very proactive and supportive. The top management is involved in the projects and remains available for discussion along the whole process. 

Getting started with Lemonway: Process & feedback

From initial planning to production, the integration process of the Lemonway solution took 6 months. Founded in 2013, EstateGuru had an existing payment platform that had to be migrated to Lemonway. The solution was adapted to take into account existing regulatory processes, while internal systems were adapted to fully integrate automated payment processes. This was essential for EstateGuru in addition to the virtual account and of course, transparent regulatory compliance for the platform users.

Today, EstateGuru is

• Fully compliant with the regulations of each country where a licensed PSP is required and fit for ECSP obligations thanks to their strategic PSP
• Backed by a strong international compliance partner handling requirements from regulatory authorities.
• Free to focus on its core business

Tomorrow, EstateGuru is looking at conducting a bold expansion strategy with the support of Lemonway. In all new markets and in particular those that will need strong regulatory support, such as the UK with the changes due to Brexit, Lemonway will provide expertise and solutions for a smooth roll-out.

The company's CEO, Jean-Pierre, explains: ‘Our relationship is quite open and honest. We understand each other’s challenges, as we are both growing fast, but at the same time we feel that Lemonway is solution-oriented, which is very vital! There have been challenges, but one-by-one we have solved those in cooperation. We are satisfied with Lemonway, that they can provide reliable solutions and support the growth »’