Lendico

About Lendico

Lendico Deutschland GmbH operates as a digital lending platform with a primary focus on providing financing solutions to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The company was established in December 2013 by the venture capitalist and incubator Rocket Internet, with founders including Christoph Samwer, Philipp Petrescu, Dominik Steinkuehler, and Clemens Paschke. Initially launched as a peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace connecting private borrowers and investors, the platform was inspired by the success of similar models in the US and UK. Lendico expanded its operations internationally to countries like Spain, Poland, Austria, South Africa, and Brazil. A significant shift in its business model occurred when it began offering loans to SMEs. Over time, the company sharpened its focus on the SME segment, discontinuing new consumer loans in Germany.

In a key strategic development, Lendico was acquired by the Dutch bank ING Groep in early 2018, and now functions as a subsidiary. This acquisition was a pivotal move for ING to accelerate its growth in the German corporate customer market and integrate a digital lending platform into its services. Before the ING acquisition, Lendico had also been briefly acquired by Arrowgrass Capital in 2017.

The platform provides a fully digitalized loan application process, offering corporate loans that historically ranged from €10,000 to €250,000 with terms of 12 to 60 months. It leverages proprietary technology to assess the creditworthiness of applicants, assigning a credit grade that determines the interest rate. This online-only model, without a physical branch network, allows for reduced operational costs.