Linked Finance Launches Revamped Lending Platform

Linked Finance has used a novel approach to complete the rollout of a new-look website for its online lending platform. The company opted to crowd source the design elements of the website, commissioning an international competition to tap into the best design talent available globally.

Launched in March 2013, Linked Finance has a growing lender base of over 11,000 people, bringing together Irish SMEs and members of the public who are looking to lend to businesses. The company has facilitated loans for over 350 Irish businesses and recently reached a milestone with over €10m in new funds now available for loans through its online platform.

The online competition attracted fifty design submissions from ten countries and providing Linked Finance with a wide range of solutions and design ideas to choose from. The crowd-sourced component of the website redesign took two weeks from tender to selection. The redesign formed part of a larger 10-month project involving a complete rebranding and technical redevelopment of company’s online lending platform following a €2.5m investment secured last year for the expansion of its IT platform and employee base.

Feedback was obtained from both lenders and borrowers prior to launch as part of the testing phase for the website.

Commenting on the launch of the new-look website, Peter O’Mahony, CEO of Linked Finance said: “We’re delighted with the results of the competition and the new design of our website. The approach used is very much in line with Linked Finance’s own peer-to-peer model and has proved a very efficient and highly cost-effective way to tap into an enormous pool of design talent. It’s also allowed us to avoid some of the constraints of traditional design routes, which can be time consuming. It’s very much an approach we’d recommend to any company looking to revamp their online presence.”

The type of borrower Linked Finance’s lenders seek to provide finance to are businesses in operation for two years or more, with a turnover of in excess of €100,000 and that are growing and in need of capital. To date, the average loan value provided through the platform is €28,000, typically over a three year term. The average loan is financed by contributions from anywhere up to over 100 successful lender bids. Individual lenders have funds available ranging from anywhere between €100,000 to €50, with the average lender diversifying funds across approximately 12 different loans at interest rates of 5?15%.