Which P2P Lending Sites Are Profitable?

History has shown so far that when P2P lending sites, close, few of them end up paying reduced returns to lenders as a result of closing down and winding down loans until they're repaid. (Although, as usual, you can suffer losses from bad debts after closure – just like you can before closure, even if the P2P lending site is profitable.)

Importantly, your own lending is ringfenced, so that you're still owed it all if the provider in the middle shuts down.

So losing money as a direct result of a P2P lending company shutting is not the biggest risk. But it can happen.

And, certainly, in the event one of these companies goes out of business, there's a risk that you'll face delays in getting all your money back.

Read more on that in What Do We Make Of The P2P Lending Companies’ Wind-Down Plans? And more on risks in closure in The 13 Key Peer-To-Peer Lending Risks.

Providers when they close, whether profitable or not, have almost always paid lenders their dues anyway.

Yet lenders take comfort from profitability. That's why we have this guide, which we update reasonably regularly.

How much are the P2P lending sites making?

As this is still a pretty new industry, many providers are still operating at a loss as a they continue to raise funds to grow their businesses. That's normal.

But now, as of the beginning of 2024, we're finding that a continuing stream of P2P lending companies have been becoming profitable as they get out of the startup phase, and even start generating regular profits.

At least 15 P2P lending companies are now profitable. Eight of those have been profitable for three or more years in a row. On average, profits have grown over the past few years and losses have shrunk.

With profitability and greater revenue, they have been providing more information in their public accounts and more of their accounts are being independently audited.

Even so, many P2P lending companies are still very much in their startup phases and have yet to make a profit. For most of these, profitability figures are hard to come by, because they remain too small. Smaller companies don't have to file much information at the public registrar of companies.

What we know about their profits

Below is a list of different P2P lending companies with the latest information we have on their profitability.

Bear in mind that this information is largely taken from company reports, some of which haven't been externally audited by independent accountants. In other cases, the information comes from spokespeople at the companies. That increases the chances that there are some inaccuracies and sometimes even whoppers. (And even independently audited accounts are far from immune to error and deception.)

If you choose to read filed P2P lending company accounts for yourself, you'll need to take a fair bit of time to understand some of the idiosyncracies of accounting in this space.

For example, you'll need to learn to interpret the figures and even to correct them in the sense of making them more meaningful to you as an investor in their loans. And you'll have to work out how companies within a group or related to the group fit together in the overall picture. We try to make it easy for you by summarising the real situation as we see it below.

Assetz Exchange | profitable

Assetz Exchange's published accounts, which are not independently audited, tell us very little.

Latest accounts are for up to end October 2023. Reading between the lines, it seems more likely than not that Assetz Exchange made a loss.

The accouts for the prior year indicated that it was most likely profitable for that 12-month period and Assetz Exchange* told us it was profitable since part way through 2021.

I had previously written that “I currently would expect it to deliberately over-spend in at least some of the coming years, to boost it's growth trajectory”. However, in 2023 it's probably more likely that higher savings interest rates temporarily reduced lender appetite to put more money in.

AxiaFunder | not profitable

AxiaFunder* submits brief, unaudited accounts to Companies House. By 2023, it most likely is around breakeven, having most likely made losses of a few hundred thousand pounds in 2022. We know it was loss making in 2021.

From the limited information provided its trajectory is good, as losses appear to have declined each year for the past four years. It's business model looks to be one which should reach profitability soon, presuming it continues to build up the number of opportunities it offers through its online platform.

AxiaFunder told us in July 2024 that it became profitable on a quarterly basis as of the second quarter of 2023 and its profits have risen rapidly. Its profits will be reduced in 2024 and 2025 though due to a one-off, £500,000 error.

BLEND Network | not profitable?

BLEND Network isn't yet required to file complete, independently audited company accounts.

Looking back a few years, its abridged accounts indicate it perhaps made a five-figure loss in 2019 and six-figure losses in 2020 and 2021.

After that, I previously wrote that I expected its losses to grow for several years as it scales up its business. While the information in its brief accounts is sparse, I think it most likely made seven-figure losses in 2022 and 2023. Best guess, on limited information, is that it's spending more heavily to grow more quickly.

Its owners appear to have already injected enough money into the business to work on the growth it needs for another year or two.

CapitalRise | profitable?

CapitalRise* became profitable in the second quarter of 2023, according to a report in its short, unaudited financial accounts . It likely continued to be profitable since then, although for its full financial year to end June 2023 it wasn't, losing perhaps half a million pounds.

It also received investment from shareholders in 2023 that helped give it plus £5 million, putting it in a very robust place.

Prior to this, its unaudited accounts showed losses of between £1.1 million and £1.5 million every financial year from 2019 to 2022.

CapitalStackers | profitable

CapitalStackers* has been profitable since around 2017 up to its latest reported year end of September 2023. From the limited information in its unaudited accounts, I estimate its profits are very small, but the stability of its profits of six or seven years counts for a lot!

Crowd2Fund | not profitable

Crowd2Fund has made losses of around £800,000 to £1 million in each of the past five years to April 2023. Total losses have built up to a total of around £7 million.

While annual losses have stayed in a narrow range, revenue has been more variable. It was around £750,000 up to April 2019, fell 30% in the following 12 months, and then reached a nadir of just £90,000 in the 12 months to April 2021, after the worst pandemic year. Revenue to recovered to £320,000 in both 2022 and 2023.

Crowd2Fund's past four company accounts have been independently audited. Its auditor is Shipleys LLC, who we are not familiar with.

In its latest accounts, Crowd2Fund's directors stated they believe it can keep going till at least the end of May 2025 through “private funding” that is available from shareholders. Its plan to finally turn the business around relies on an awful lot turning out right.

Its auditors consider there is “material uncertainty” that Crowd2Fund can carry on for 12 more months.

CrowdProperty | profitable

CrowdProperty has been profitable for three years in a row, with profits now having peaked at about £1 million as of its latest filed accounts, which have an end date of March 2023.

It achieved these profits despite continuing to invest heavily to grow even more, suggesting it has already become a stably profitable company.

Downing Crowd | profitable

Downing Crowd is a unit of a larger business, Downing LLP. We can't see the results of the Downing Crowd unit, but the overall business is nicely profitable, making at least seven-figure profits over the past nine years. It's been profitable for at least the past 16 years.

Revenue has been £25 million to £35 million in four of the past five years to 2023. In 2023 revenue rose to £44 million and its profit jumped to £34 million from a historically more typical £11 million. This was due to the sale of one of its business units.

easyMoney | profitable

easyMoney made its first profit of about £300,000 in 2020, after a loss of about £1 million the year before. Profits rose to nearly £600,000 in 2021, nearly £1.1 million in 2022 and £1.9 million in 2023.

It's had at least two independent auditors in the past four years, most recently Saffery Champness, which is known to us.

Folk2Folk | profitable

Folk2Folk has been profitable for five financial years in a row, up to January 2024. Profits rose from £200,000 in both 2019 and 2020 up to £1 million in the 12 months to January 2021, and then just shy of £2 million in the year to January 2022. It made around £1 million to January 2023 and again the following year.

Revenue grew from around £3 million in prior years to around £5 million in the past three years.

Auditors are Saffery Champness LLP, who we are familiar with.

Fund Ourselves | not profitable

The latest, unaudited accounts for Fund Ourselves' financial year to end 2022 indicate a loss of around half a million pounds, although it's unclear due to the accounts being abbreviated.

While it's possible that it made a profit the year before that, earlier accounts combined with the latest ones suggest it has some way to go before hitting profitability.

Invest & Fund | not profitable

Invest & Fund* lost between £300,000 and £1.1 million every year from 2020 to 2023, but it made its first profit in  its financial year to March 2024 of about £100,000.

Revenue doubled between 2020 and 2023 to nearly £1.3 million and more than doubled in the following 12 months, closing at more than £3 million in 2024.

It also has plenty of cash after another injection from shareholders.

Invest & Fund's accounts continue to be audited by Crowe U.K. LLP.

Kuflink | profitable

The Kuflink* group of companies made its third profit of £1.9 million in 2023, up from more than £700,000 in 2022 and £400,000 the prior year. This was on about £15 million in revenue, up from £10 million and £6 million respectively.

Kuflink now says its stably profitable, which I find to be a highly plausible claim.

Profits in Kuflink's P2P lending arm itself were £235,000, up from £125,000 the prior year but down from £300,000 the year before that. The drop was because it shifted some of its lending towards its own bridging-loan business. The reason for that was to satisfy financial institutions that needed to see some more profitability from that side of its business. Revenue at this arm is up a bit at £2.7 million.

Kuflink's other bridging-loan business, its older brother so to speak, has mostly been profitable and growing since 2011.

Independent auditors are MHA MacIntyre Hudson.

Lendahand Ethex | not profitable

Published accounts – most recently for the 2023 calendar year – are not audited and not detailed, but best guess is that it is not profitable.

LandlordInvest | profitable?

LandlordInvest‘s unaudited accounts up to and including its 2022 financial year don't provide sufficient information, since they are the abridged versions, but it told 4thWay back in April 2022 that it was profitable in 2020 and 2021. P2P Finance News reports that it was very slightly profitable in 2022. In 2023, its limited accounts indicate roughly breakeven, but that is just best guess.

Lendwise | not profitable

Its accounts for the calendar year 2023 are unaudited and highly abbreviated and therefore there's a lot of guesswork. Reading between the lines, the accounts indicate losses have most likely fallen to perhaps a couple of hundred thousand pounds, down from possibly greater than half-a-million pounds the year before.

Lendwise had previously told us that it was forecasting profitability in 2023, so it might have missed that target. But its drop in losses is still substantial and Lendwise likely has the cash to keep going for quite some time, giving it more leeway to grow into a profitable business.

Loanpad | profitable

Loanpad* tells us it reached profitability on a monthly basis in June 2021 and it states that it will remain profitable from now on.

Its published accounts for the 2022 and 2023 calendar years can't confirm this for certain, as they're abridged (and unaudited) accounts for smaller companies, yet they strongly indicate that it most likely is annually making six-figure profits, while its cash balance is growing.

Proplend | profitable

Proplend* was very likely profitable in 2023 and it had its first profitable calendar year in 2022, according to its unaudited accounts. It probably made five- or six-figure profits in both years.

In the prior two years it appears that it was already close to profitability. Limited information indicates it had just small losses even through the pandemic and the following year.

Rebuildingsociety | unprofitable?

On balance it seems most likely that Rebuildingsociety was slightly unprofitable in 2022, but in prior years perhaps slightly proftable. Its published accounts are highly abridged, however, so there's low confidence on that assessment.

Rebuildingsociety remains a very small P2P lending company, but it does have an attractive balance sheet, with its assets far outweighing its liabilities.

Relendex | profitable

Relendex's accounts are too small to provide the details we need.

Relendex once told P2P Finance News that it was profitable for two years up to 2021. Relendex stated it made profits of £300,000 the following year and again told the industry news magazine that it was profitable in 2022, with larger profits than the prior year. It's 2023 accounts indicate it probably made in excess of half-a-million pounds.

The limited information in its published accounts mean we're unable to check its figures, although its accounts do not have a full report from their independent auditors, anyway.

Shojin Property Partners | not profitable?

Shojin Property Partners has five relevant companies in its group, including the holding company. That isn't particularly unusual for ambitious companies involved in property or property lending, when they have plans for a variety of products.

However, it's tricky to figure out what's happening between each company and how relevant each one is, because the information in each of the accounts is very limited.

It probably made a profit in just one of the three years of 2018, 2019 and 2020. It seems most likely that it didn't make a profit in 2021. In 2022, while its “main” company (in my opinion) made a profit thanks only to taxes, I think overall the companies could have made a loss. In 2023, it appears to have made a small loss.

Shojin has used the independent auditors Leaman Mattei, who we are not familiar with. However, recent accounts haven't been audited.

Somo | profitable

Somo* is profitable. Its filed audited accounts for 2023 show a profit after tax and before payouts to shareholders of £5.1 million.

2022 profit had been £4.6 million, and under £4 million profit the year before that.

Somo has been profitable for many years and profits appear to have risen for several years in a row.

Somo says that it's made a profit ever since 2015, when it was called BridgeCrowd.

Sourced Capital | not profitable

The latest we heard from Sourced Capital is that it's not profitable and likely a few years away. Published accounts are too small to show us any details.

When trying to read between the lines at some of its interconnected companies, the 2022 accounts appear to indicate that Sourced Capital probably isn't profitable.

The Money Platform | profitable

Up from a loss of £200,000, The Money Platform made its first profit of £130,000 in its 12 months to January 2023, according to brief, unaudited (amended) accounts.

Unbolted | not profitable?

Unbolted‘s unaudited, published accounts are highly abbreviated, but suggest it was probably close to breakeven in 2022, improving from what seem most likely to be losses in its earlier years, possibly of several hundred thousand pounds per year.

Read more

The 3 P2P Lending Providers With The Best Financial Health.

At this stage, profits aren't key for many of these fast growing startups, so you need to look at other ways to measure stability and strength. To that end, read Who Owns The P2P Lending Sites?