Danish Lunar Group acquires the Swedish loan and savings platform Lendify to strengthen the private loan business.
The Danish digital bank Lunar has grown and is now expanding its business in the Nordic region with the acquisition of Lendify which is particularly known for its loans.
Lendify’s loan book is worth about €300 million, this brings Lunar 40,000 active savings and loan customers.
Lendify’s largest shareholders include Richard Göransson, former owner of Intrum, Håkan Roos, entrepreneur and owner of RoosGruppen and early investors in iZettle, Inbox Capital and AB Grenspecialisten.
Lendify is licensed as a payment institution by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority. The company was founded in 2014 and has built a data-driven credit engine that offers both unsecured loans through balance sheet financing and peer-to-peer loans.
Erika Eliasson, who worked just over five years as vice president of Lendify, is positive about the deal.
“The match between Lendify and Lunar will be very good. And we will see more of these types of mergers in the future. It is a natural development in a rapidly growing industry,” says Erika Eliasson.
“We have been following Lendify for a long time and have been impressed by their credit model and modern savings services. We have large investment capital and the purchase of Lendify gives us the opportunity to turn this into lending and thus accelerate our Nordic growth,” says Ken Villum Klausen, founder and CEO of Lunar Group in a written comment.
The financial terms of the merge are not disclosed. Lunar will currently operate Lendify as an independent platform and offer loans under both the Lendify and Lunar brands. The transaction is awaiting regulatory approval and is expected to close in mid-May.
