White label P2P platform Trillion Fund up for sale
RENEWABLE energy peer-to-peer loans provider Trillion Fund is up for sale.
The platform, which stopped offering loans for P2P projects in 2015 after government renewable energy subsidies were cut, has struggled to make its white-label crowdfunding service financially viable.
Trillion Fund launched Your Brand Crowdfunding last year to allow companies to run fundraising campaigns on their own website, but Theresa Burton, chief executive of Trillion Fund, said there had not been enough take up.
“We are now looking to sell the assets and technology infrastructure,” she told Peer-to-Peer Finance News.
“The target type of buyer would be a company that wants to enter the sector. We have the infrastructure ready for them.
“The sector has become very crowded; you need a loan book of around £100m just to break even. There are plenty of investors but it is a struggle for many to get the ongoing deal flow.”
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Burton said the platform, which holds interim regulatory permissions, has 600 lenders and a loan book of £3m that will close with a final repayment due in April 2018.
If purchased, she hopes to stay on initially to help with a handover before stepping down. If there is no sale, the company will close once the final loan is repaid.
Over the past six years, the firm has developed an administration framework for all aspects of P2P lending and crowdfunding, including payment systems, customer services, and platform administration. The firm also has policy, procedures and systems in place for all aspects of regulatory compliance.
“As a result of the government’s surprising decision to suddenly withdraw subsidies from the renewable energy sector in 2015, Trillion Fund was unable to secure sufficient deal flow to support its focus on renewable energy,” said Burton.
“The firm sought to pivot to a new P2P lending service in 2016 Your Brand Crowdfunding. Although the concept was warmly received in initial market research, it was challenging to get to the deal flow volumes required to scale fast enough.
“The core site Trillionfund.com is fully operational, managing interest payments on loans for existing investors. The technology supporting the platform is robust, well-tested and up-to-date and easily configurable to new branding.”
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