Crowdstacker reviews lending strategy while losses shrink
Crowdstacker is considering adapting its products and lending strategy as it monitors the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on its platform and the wider economy.
Karteek Patel (pictured), chief executive of the peer-to-peer business lender, said plans for an auto-switching savings product are currently suspended as the platform focuses on existing relationships.
“Every business is looking at the impact of the pandemic,” Patel told Peer2Peer Finance News.
“We will be evaluating how to adapt and hopefully this will result in products that are different to our past products.
“They will still be P2P-focused but there may be differences in where we lend.”
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He suggested that Crowdstacker is well-placed to get through the uncertainty after streamlining its business during 2019.
This involved reducing its headcount from 10 to six staff and bringing more services in-house.
Patel said this helped reduce losses in its annual accounts for the year to 31 March 2020 to £256,940 from £419,089 the previous year.
“We were seeing revenue grow in the final half of the year and were profitable in the final quarter,” Patel said.
“We made decisions in 2019 that have set us up well for the impact of Covid-19.”
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Patel added that work is ongoing with three of its defaulted loans, with progress expected with Amicus and Authentic Alehouses at the end of next year but he said Burning Night is proving more complex.
Two of its projects, Rivers Leasing and LonPro have requested forbearance due to the pandemic, which has been accepted while others such as Quanta and Clearwell Capital have accelerated repayments.