Orca launches P2P investment platform
A NEW peer-to-peer investment platform has launched, enabling investors to diversify across multiple providers.
The new offering, from P2P analysis firm Orca, aims to make the investment process easier and quicker by doing the due diligence on the behalf of the individual, with target five per cent returns.
“We’ve been in the market for a couple of years with Orca Analytics and as we started acquiring a database of P2P investors, we felt it was hard for them to build a balanced portfolio,” Jordan Stodart, co-founder of Orca, told Peer2Peer Finance News.
“We offer superior levels of diversification. Not only do we invest across different platforms but the portfolio will always include consumer, business and property loans.”
Five platforms are currently included on Orca’s platform: business lender Assetz Capital, consumer loans provider Lending Works, buy-to-let mortgage lender Landbay, property lender Octopus Choice and consumer lender Lending Crowd.
Read more: Orca accepted into regulatory sandbox scheme
Every person who invests the minimum of £1,000 will have their funds allocated across Assetz Capital, Lending Works and Landbay, giving them diversification across business, consumer and property lending.
“These platforms have passed Orca’s due diligence tests; they have to meet certain high-level objectives such as secondary markets and Financial Conduct Authority authorisation,” said Stodart.
If someone invests a larger amount, in multiples of £1,000, then their funds will also be put into Octopus Choice and then Lending Crowd.
Only platforms that automatically diversify investors’ capital across multiple borrowers will be included in Orca’s portfolios, with plans to include manual lending opportunities at a later date.
Read more: Investors back auto-lending as top P2P platform feature
Investors cannot pick their risk criteria, meaning that people looking for higher returns will need to wait for Orca to include the manual lending products within their portfolio.
“We are passionate about promoting the attractiveness of P2P as an asset class to retail investors,” said Iain Niblock, chief executive of Orca.
Read more: P2P investors risk losses by lending to just one borrower
“Having analysed the market for years and forged strong relationships with platforms, we believe we are well positioned to help investors gain exposure to an asset class that complements their portfolio with stable, uncorrelated yield at a time when poor cash rates and volatility are affecting performance.”
Orca joins Goji and BondMason in offering diversified P2P portfolios to retail investors.
