Frequently Asked Questions
Electronic platform is a marketplace that brings together project owners as borrowers and investors as lenders, enabling them to make an investment in online regime or to raise funds for their own project within a short period of time. It is an independent market participant that provides an assessment of borrowers, strict selection of projects, identification and compliance of investors according to legislation standards and its own internal procedures as well as accounting system and control of interest payments calculation and distribution and all settlements with the investors.
Crowdfunding stands for the process of collection/raising of funds from several sources for funding a larger project in order to make the process of funds raising faster and easier, with a subsequent investing of the funds. Platform is a modern fintech solution to automate this process, to enable distant investing options in online regime (by using internet banking or payment institution services) and to provide a system for accounting and control of all settlements.
It is actually crowdlending. The nature of crowdlending is that loans are granted that yield risk-based interest payments. In contrast, crowdinvesting stands for contributing capital into a company in exchange for a share of its equity.
Thus, all our investment opportunities presently offered are crowdlending-based. However, we may develop and introduce alternative business models in future, all compliant with regulatory requirements. For sure, we will inform our clients when such offers are available.
Our business model is called lending-based crowdfunding. It means that, following a thorough assessment of the project owner and the project, upon its approval by our specialists, a pool is open on the Platform for investing. Subject to the specific project and conditions, there is usually a fixed term as well as a target amount and minimum amount determined for the pool to be considered as completed. For this time the funds of investors are in status "money on hold" which means that they are frozen on their investment accounts on the Platform.
When the target amount is achieved, or, alternatively, if the term for pool completion expired and at least minimum amount achieved, the funds of the pool are lent to the borrower (project owner) as soon as it fulfils mandatory requirements of the Platform (which may include, inter alia, registration of mortgage or provision of another agreed collateral for the security of investors). From this moment the "money on hold" changes its status to real investments.
Not really. It is no secret that other platforms in the market also offer various crowdfunding models and their offers may be similar or analogous to ours. Indeed, crowdfunding is not our know-how. However, we are trying to be different, ensuring full transparency and compliance, a through selection of offers, based on a rigorous independent analysis, marketable collaterals and high quality of customer support.
We offer a variety of business projects in EU member countries. These are short-term and medium-term offers, which for development projects means that these are mainly reconstruction/renovation objects, development objects in process (close to finish) or longer time objects, implemented in several stages, provided, that each of them is marketable and generates satisfactory cash flow. As regards business projects, these are objects, intended for refinancing or sale upon the completion of a certain phase or one-time operations that will generate a sufficient revenue and exit in a short-term run.
These are the projects that can sustain the claimed interest rates due to their high value added, short term of the investment, or a combination of funding involved (e.g., a bank loan and/or partial equity investment of the project owner).
All investments are exposed to a variety of risks and our offers are not exceptional in this regard. The presence of a marketable collateral (ex. real estate) and low loan-to-value (LTV) ratio can mitigate investor’s risks, but it is impossible to eliminate all risks pertaining to your investment. The important issues you need to solve before making an investment are: a) the determination of risk-profit level of your comfort, as more risky projects, as a rule, offer higher returns and visa versa; and b) deciding about the maximum level of loss that you can afford without significant harm to your budget and life quality.
We strongly recommend: 1) not to invest more money than you can afford to lose; 2) to study thoroughly information provided about the project and the project owner; and 3) to seek an independent advice of professional consultant before making any investments.
Please note: no information on the Platform web-site and/or our documents is purported to be an advice or recommendation to make an investment and, therefore, shall never be treated as such.
Absolutely. Historically, there was no unified crowdfunding regulation at EU level, therefore, this issue was regulated and solved independently by each jurisdiction. From 10 November 2023, all crowdfunding platforms in the EU are obliged to comply with the requirements of Regulation (EU) 2020/1503 on European crowdfunding service providers (ECSP) for business and obtain a license from local financial supervisory authority. In Estonia, it is Finantsinspektsioon.
Our Platform observes these standards and has obtained an Activity License, issued by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of Estonia, confirming its compliance with AML requirements
Each investor will have several documents, together confirming its participation in the respective loan and securing its interests.
The Investor's, Platform's and Agent's mutual rights and obligations are clearly specified in the Terms and Conditions for Investors and in the Agent agreement, which the Investor concludes upon the investing.
To prove our compliance with strictest AML requirements, we applied for and received a termless Activity License for financial institution, issued by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of Estonia as an evidence of having and following certain politics and standards in the field of anti-money laundering.
We have also applied to Finantsinspektsioon for authorization as European crowdfunding service provider (ECSP) in accordance with the requirements of Regulation (EU) 2020/1503 on European crowdfunding service providers (ECSP) for business that sets up having this license as a mandatory requirement to continue and carry out operations in the European Union starting from 10 November 2023.
For immediate registration on the Platform, you need to pass a simple registration process by clicking on "Register" button on the website. You will be asked to provide your name and email address, which will be verified, and a password. Once you have submitted the requested information and accepted our policies and rules, you will receive a link for verification of your email address. Following this link you will enter your account with the Platform, called Fundroom. More detailed information about the registration procedure you can find in our Registration rules.
The user should be an individual of full legal capacity or a duly registered legal entity with a place of residence in one of the EU member states. It should be at least 18 years old (if individual) and have good reputation (without criminal background and not included in sanction lists). The Platform also does not provide its services to politically exposed persons and other persons having characteristics, which the Platform considers as unacceptable based on its AML/CTF Policy or rules of Lemonway SAS, our payment service provider. Such users may be registered but will be subject to later rejection as a result of due diligence procedure.
It is a technical individual account, opened with our payment service provider, Lemonway SAS as a part of mandatory registration and subscription for Platform services. In contrast to your conventional bank or payment account, it cannot be used for other purposes except for funding your investment account with the Platform. You will not have access to it for other purposes, but the funds will be safely deposited with the custodian bank BNP Paribas S.A. (France).
Once your Lemonway VIBAN is funded, the amount of funds will be automatically credited to your investment account balance and available for investing. This solution is a mandatory requirement of Regulation (EU) 2020/1503 on European crowdfunding service providers (ECSP) for business.
The user should be an individual of full legal capacity or a duly registered legal entity with a place of residence in one of the EU member states. Due to the AML considerations and internal client policy of FUNDAUS and our payment service provider, Lemonway SAS, based on the specific of international regulations, we do not accept users from the countries, included in international sanction lists.
Yes, you can, provided, that the legal entity opens an account with our payment service provider, Lemonway SAS during registration, and your company is not registered in sanctioned countries and has no associated persons (beneficiaries, board members), included in international sanction lists or have other unacceptable characteristics (for more information on this issue please read our AML/CTF Policy).
Yes. These are exceptional cases but please note that the Platform reserves the right to reject any user based on result of due diligence performed in accordance with our AML procedures in case of knowledge or any suspicions of money laundering or other criminal affairs, bad reputation, unacceptable characteristics, refusal to provide required information or provision of misleading information, etc. and is not obliged to provide any kind of explanations in case of such rejection (for more information on this issue please read our AML/CTF Policy).
One person can have one account open with our Platform. However, you may choose to have an account registered for yourself and an individual and one or several – for your legal entity(ies). These will be separate Platform users, even represented by the same person.
The identity of the users and their representatives (in case of legal entity) is verified using online verification service provider, our partner, Sumsub.
Upon identification process the investor - individual or a representative of investor - legal entity will be asked to verify its identity and will be forwarded to the Sumsub digital area, there the person will be verified following the instructions.
A photo and video of a person`s face will be made and a valid identity document (a document admitted as such in the country of residence of the person) shall be shown into the camera. Photos and videos of the person and its document will be matched, checked and sent to us with conclusion whether the verification is passed successfully. This procedure is mandatory for becoming our client.
The identity verification may be made using a computer, phone or tablet. The user may be asked to download the respective application to its gadget for this purpose.
The user is allowed to prove its identity in another way, for example by attending a meeting with the Platform`s employee and showing original of its identity document or by sending a notarized copy of its identity document to us. We believe that these options are less convenient for you, but if it is preferable, you should Contact our Support Team.
Please note, that the identity verification is only a part of the due diligence procedure and shall be accompanied by submission of information and documents required by the Platform. The successfully passed identity verification itself does not mean that the user will be approved by the Platform.
For more information on this issue please read our Registration Rules and Terms and Conditions, as well as the instructions of Sumsub upon verification procedure.
As an individual or representative of a legal entity, you need to provide a valid identification document and a proof of residence, if required by the Platform, which may be a tax certificate or another proving document if accepted by the Platform. Kindly note that we accept either a passport, or an ID card as the identification document. For mandatory registration with our payment service provider, Lemonway SAS, you will be required to have two identification documents.
For legal entities, the following copies of documents need to be provided: Certificate of Registration, Articles of Association, ownership and management structure confirming document and Power of Attorney or another document on the base of which the signatory operates. These documents can be partly or fully substituted by the extracts from the official company registries, provided that they include the data required by the Platform.
The Platform also requires to prove source of held assets, what can be done by document, which confirms origins of funds and source of wealth.
For more information on the documents and information, which has to be submitted upon identification, please read our AML/CTF Policy.
No, there are no direct or hidden fees for registration. The Platform retains the right to introduce such fees in future, however, at the moment we have no plans to introduce such fees and, even if we do, the previously registered accounts will not be charged. For fees concerning using your account and making operations, please see the fees applicable in our Price List.
The underlying reason is that we equally care both about our clients and our reputation. According to local Estonian and international AML regulation and our internal mandatory risk control procedures that we are obliged to follow strictly as a licensed financial institution, we cannot afford dealing with suspicious clients and/or source of funds and, respectively, no new client can be onboarded without a thorough registration and identification process.
In this context, we rely to the smart and advanced distant digital client identification solution provided by our reliable partner, Sumsub, accompanied by our experienced AML expert’s measures for manual verifications and due diligence of our clients.
It is true that a part of client investigation procedure can be extracted from initial registration process and postponed to the latter stage of our relationship, pertaining to real investment and settlement stage, as a part of steps and actions in our onboarding procedure is associated with the verification of the source of funds. However, for confidence of our clients, we prefer to avoid such situation when we are forced to reject a successfully onboarded client on a later stage.
Thus, our approach assumes passing all mandatory investigation procedures by each client at the very beginning to save time and to avoid futile efforts to investigate our investment offers and making plans to invest, still being unsure about final acceptance by our AML department. Spending more time for registration, you eventually gain in terms of receiving a prompt confirmation and, in case of positive response, may be sure that your acceptance is final, provided that your data are correct and your documents are valid, and that you are allowed to start immediate investing.
You can retrieve your username and password by using your e-mail. It is strongly recommended to change your password after it has been e-mailed to avoid stealing and misuse of your data. If you have questions or troubles, please contact our Support Team.
In this situation we strongly recommend to change your password as soon as possible. As an emergent alternative, you can contact our Support Team and we will temporarily or permanently block the access to your account. Kindly note that the security of password is the personal responsibility of each user, therefore the Platform cannot be liable for an unauthorized access to your account in this situation, as well as for any damage caused by misuse of your investment account (e.g. unsanctioned operations) or your personal data.
For security purposes, to prevent any unauthorized use of your account, we have applied two-factor authorization. If you have suspicions, we recommend contacting our Support Team, providing us with as detailed information as you can, including the possible time and place of misuse of your data as well as the date and time of your last login, etc. We will try to check if there were logins from other places/devices; however, not always it is possible.
For security purposes, it is strongly recommended to immediately change your password in case of such suspicions, as well as to change it as a precaution periodically.
Kindly note that the security of password and the availability for your devises for logging in to third persons is the personal responsibility of each user, therefore the Platform cannot be liable for an unauthorized access to your account in this situation, as well as for any damage caused by misuse of your investment account (e.g. unsanctioned operations) or your personal data.
It is a mode of logging in to your investment account when you need to authorize (to prove your identity) twice before you get access to your account and profile. Step one is entering your username and password and step two is entering a dynamic numeric code, generated by authenticator application program in live regime. To be able to use your account, you will need to upload Google authenticator.
Your electronic data is stored on a high security server, corresponding to data protection level as required by financial institutions, maintained by a professional service provider, with regular mandatory automatic data backup process and reserved data copies, stored on several other servers separately.
Hard copies of documents are stored in a safe with strict access control.
All data is handled in strict accordance with the mandatory requirements of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the EU.
Chief Technical Officer (CTO) has full access to your profile for emergencies with strict limitation of cases and situations when it can be executed, as stated in our internal policy.
Platform operator has a limited access to your profile to the extent it is necessary to execute daily operations of service and maintenance.
All employees and officers of our company have signed strict confidentiality agreement and have been duly instructed concerning data protection issues. In no circumstances, excluding for binding requests of state law enforcement authorities or enforcement of legal or contractual obligations you have been informed about, your data will be disclosed to third parties.
For more information regarding personal data related issues, please read our Privacy Policy.
Yes. It is the responsibility of Platform users to always provide copy of valid passport or ID. Also, it can be simply demonstrated via the digital distant client identification software, provided by our partner, Sumsub.
Due to AML requirements, we are not allowed to delete your user profile and personal data, except for the case if no settlements between you and Platform (by means of bank wire transfer or payment systems) have been made. If any single transaction occurred, all we can do on your request is to deactivate your profile which means a complete block of access to your account and your personal data. However, your personal data will remain permanently stored in accordance with our GDPR and legal requirements to be retrieved by state law enforcement authorities upon their request if such a necessity occurs.
No, you can’t. Please note that your username (as used to log in to the Platform) is your valid email that is verified during your first registration and remains permanently for emergencies, e.g. password retrieval.
Yes, you can, but please note that your data should always be correct and accurate. That means, for example, that your telephone number or place of residence can be easily changed, but to change your name or family name is only possible provided that a new identification document with another name is issued (in this case a new ID should be provided to the Platform in due course). There will also be data that may not be changed at all, like your date of birth.
Yes, you can. However, please note that only e-mail used for internal communications with the Platform and our support service can be changed. The e-mail used for account registration and used for login cannot be changed – in this case you will have different e-mails for login and emergency (e.g. password retrieval) and the other – to be used for regular internal communication.
On the front page, you will see your name, surname and unique user’s identification number as well as your account balance. In section “Settings” there will be your contact details. Here you can also find all our politics and procedures, samples of documents, and electronic copies of signed loan agreements. In respective sections, you will find your active investments with a prospective payment schedule, repaid investments, money on hold, pending withdrawals. It is also possible to see or download your account history (in the form of statement) or income statement for tax purposes.
It is a random 9-digit number, generated by our system during user’s registration. To verify your identity, as well as for security purposes, it should be always copied into the field “Purpose of payment” when you make a bank wire transfer of funds or payment via payment institution to the Platform’s account. For your convenience, it is always stated on the top of your investment profile in the front page and repeated as a reminder in section “Add funds”.
No, there are no direct or hidden fees for investor’s profile/account maintenance. Should such fees be introduced in future, the Platform will inform the users in due course; however, at the moment we have no plans to introduce such fees.
The purpose of investors categorization is to protect their interests by limiting their access to risky transactions in case of lack of professional experience. We categorize investors in order to be compliant to the Regulation (EU) 2020/1503 on European crowdfunding service providers (ECSP) for business (CSP Regulation).
According to the definition provided by the Committee of European Securities Regulators, the following groups of investors are recognized as professional investors:
Kindly note that by default all registered investors of our Platform are acknowledged as retail (non- sophisticated) investors. If you wish to be recognized as a sophisticated investor, you will need to provide the documents, confirming your compliance to sophisticated investor status. Please contact our Support Team for more information.
By default, you will get confirmations of investments made in the pool and the change of the status of the funds frozen from “Money on hold” to “Real investment”.
Please note that you will also be informed by e-mail about any significant changes in our policy, pricing or other terms and conditions.
You can check your account balance at any time by logging into your Fundroom. The account balance is displayed right on the front page and always visible to the user. Please see your account history for more information.
Sure, you can display your account history on your monitor or download it in like ordinary bank account statement for the selected period of operations from a respective section in your Fundroom.
You should transfer the funds from your bank or payment account via a wire transfer to your virtual account (VIBAN), opened with our payment service provider, Lemonway SAS. A detailed instruction is provided in your Fundroom. You should copy your user’s identification number, which is also visible on the top line of the front page in your Fundroom, so that our system can recognize your transfer and assign the transferred amount to your investment account.
As soon as your wire transfer is received by Lemonway and your funds are credited to your account, the amount of the transfer will be added to your available investment account balance and you will be able to use the funds for investing.
Kindly note that you can transfer any amount to your Lemonway VIBAN to be reflected on your investment account, but we have limitations for minimum investment, which is 100 EUR for individuals and 300 EUR for legal entities.
It is a technical individual account, opened with our payment service provider, Lemonway SAS as a part of mandatory registration and subscription for Platform services. In contrast to your conventional bank or payment account, it cannot be used for other purposes except for funding your investment account with the Platform. You will not have access to it for other purposes, but the funds will be safely deposited with the custodian bank BNP Paribas S.A. (France).
Once your Lemonway VIBAN is funded, the amount of funds will be automatically credited to your investment account balance and available for investing. This solution is a mandatory requirement of Regulation (EU) 2020/1503 on European crowdfunding service providers (ECSP) for business.
To transfer funds to your Lemonway VIBAN, you can use any account, opened with bank or payment institution which is eligible for Lemonway SAS to accept money from. However, your Investment account is assigned to your Lemonway VIBAN, so to replenish the Investment account balance you need to fund your VIBAN.
No. So far, the option to fund your account with a bank card is not available.
It depends on time of wire transfer between your bank or payment account and Lemonway VIBAN. Generally, within European countries it is up to 2 business days, however, we recommend to contact your payment provider directly for more information. The funds received on your VIBAN are credited to your account balance automatically.
The total time from the moment when the transfer is made and the moment when the funds appear on your investment account depends on the time of bank-to bank transfer and is out of our control, however, generally, within European countries it is up to 2 business days. Payments made via payment institutions may reach us faster; however, we recommend to contact your payment provider directly for more information.
Please note that distribution of funds and their appearance on your investor’s account does not mean physical relocation of money from the Platform’s account. The funds will remain on our account until an investment pool is completed when an according amount is transferred directly to the project owner. The appearance of funds on your investment account and their relocation according to the operations you make is ensured for accounting purposes, and your investment account on the Platform is not an analogue of bank account or an account open with a payment institution.
The funds of the investors are kept separately from the FUNDAUS funds on the sub-accounts of a segregated account, opened on the name of FUNDAUS with our payment service provider, Lemonway SAS. Physically, these are deposited in custodian bank BNP Paribas S.A. (France).
In accordance with the Regulation-compliant payments solution introduced and supported by Lemonway, these funds are not be owned by FUNDAUS and are made unavailable for its business operations.
A certification of acknowledgement is provided by Lemonway that the funds of the investors belong solely to the investors and will not be used to settle the liabilities of FUNDAUS or other parties.
No. Due to AML considerations, it is absolutely excluded and prohibited. The payer should always be the same person as the registered Platform investor, which means a full coincidence of name(s) and surname(s) for individuals and name and registration number in case of legal entity. If we receive a payment from a third party, the money will be immediately transferred back to the sender, if not blocked by the bank. The Platform also reserves the right to inform the banks on suspicious transactions that will be recognized as such on our own discretion.
In this case, provided that it is made from an account accepted by Lemonway with a full coincidence of name(s) and surname(s) of the payer and user in case of individual and name and registration number in case of legal entity, this transaction can be processed manually by our operator. However, please note that a) the processing of such transaction may take more time, as it does not happen automatically; and b) you may be contacted by our operator or AML specialist in case we have doubts concerning your identity or other concerns (for example, if there are more than one user with the same or similar name registered on the Platform). In this case please be ready to provide additional documents or information upon our request, otherwise the funds will be transferred back to the sender.
As all operations on the Platform are carried out in euros, and so are the settlements between the Platform and the project owners and all loan agreements are made in euros, it is recommended to transfer funds to euro only to avoid additional charges (bank commissions, associated with currency exchange and/or transfers) and confusion with interest calculations.
However, we do accept wire transfers made in currencies which are officially in circulation in the EU and (e.g., Swedish or Danish crones) and in this case Platform reserves the right to convert the currency to euros at the day of reception or at the date of processing of the payment. Kindly note that the money will appear on your investment account converted to euro and all outgoing payments will be made in euros.
By default, we do not accept payments in currencies which are not in official circulation in EU, unless not agreed otherwise. The Platform retains the right to return the money back to the sender. An additional commission associated to the transfer may be charged by the bank.
No, there is no minimum or maximum amounts for adding funds; however, please note that there is a minimum for investment set up by the Platform which is 100 EUR for an individual and 300 EUR for a legal entity, therefore, the minimum bank transfer is rather the question of feasibility which may be left at your own discretion.
You will be asked to specify the source of your funds to be used for future investments in the identification form and the Platform reserves the right to request additional information or documents proving the source of your funds specified by you in your identification form at any time – either upon your on-boarding or later in case of any suspicions, for example, if your transfer significantly exceeds your stated income/savings, etc.
No, we do not apply any additional commissions except for the ones our bank or payment institution may charge for a wire transfer to your Lemonway VIBAN.
The minimum investment is 100 EUR for an individual and 300 EUR for a legal entity.
Generally, not. However, in accordance with the provisions of the Regulation (EU) 2020/1503 on European crowdfunding service providers (ECSP) for business, we take extra care about non- sophisticated investors in terms of explicit risk warnings and ensuring a possibility to revoke an offer to invest with no penalty sanctions within 4 calendar days.
Kindly note the Platform reserves the right to request additional information or documents proving the source of your funds at any time in case of any suspicions pertaining to the origin of your funds, for example, if your transfer significantly exceeds your stated regular income.
The Platform may decide on the maximum limits in a future, which you will be notified about.
Investment pool is a “basket” open on the Platform for registered users for investing with a limit of its target amount for completion. It is assigned to a certain project or project stage. The underlying idea of a pool – contributions, made by numerous investors to fund one larger project.
Target amount is maximum amount of investments within a certain pool. It is also the desired principal of the loan the project owner applied for. As soon as/when it is achieved, the pool is completed and the funds are transferred to the project owner, based on a loan agreement, upon completion necessary requirements by the project owner which are subject to a certain project/deal (e.g. mortgage registration).
Minimum amount of the pool is the minimum sum of raised funds, upon achievement of which the pool will be deemed as completed; however, funds can still be invested until the target amount is achieved or until the stated pool completion term expires. It is usually the minimum amount required by the project owner; depending on circumstances, it can be stated as equal to target amount or be lower. If minimum amount of the pool is not achieved within the stated term, the pool shall be deemed as not completed and the frozen funds shall be automatically returned to investors’ accounts immediately upon pool completion term expiration.
It is always clearly stated in each project description as a final date for investments that can be made (provided, that the pool is not completed earlier). The stated term usually does not exceed one month from the moment of pool opening, but may vary from days to months depends on the urgency of fund raising and the assumed speed of pool completion.
Confirmation of investment is an automatic notification of the Platform which appears on your screen and is also sent to your contact e-mail to confirm that the amounts of funds you specified is delivered to the investment pool, pertaining to the project (offer) that you chose. On your investment account this amount will be deducted from your account balance, temporary frozen and reflected as “money on hold”, until the moment of pool completion or pool completion term expiration.
“Money on hold” is frozen money on your investment account which is not counted to your account balance. It is a total of funds you chose to invest in the Platform offers which will become real investments upon pool completion and after the loan is issued or credited back to your account balance in case the pool is not completed and the pool completion term expired or the loan has not been issued due to some unforeseen situation (e.g., the Project owner failed to fulfil the mandatory requirement of providing the collateral).
Yes, you will receive a confirmation via e-mail.
Your investment income is calculated, starting from the day when the loan is issued to the project owner.
Please note that there may be a time lag between pool completion date and the loan is issued – this is due to the certain requirements the project owner needs to fulfil before the loan is physically issued (e.g., registration of collateral, etc.). We take every effort to minimize the waiting time.
All your investments are visible in the according section of your personal cabinet. Please note that there are separate subsections for the investments that have already been repaid and the current (“active”) investments that are yet to generate income (the principal of the loan is not yet fully repaid). The section “Investments” contain information not only about the invested amounts and dates, but also on the prospective payments according to the schedule. Each line is clickable, i.e. you can open detailed information on the project you invested in.
All payments due, including the interest and principal, are calculated automatically by our system, according to the terms and conditions of investments, offered within a certain project. The system calculates the payments proportionally to the share of your investment(s) in the total pool and the term of investment and you will see your individual payment schedule in your Fundroom after the loan is issued.
Our system supports various types of credit payment calculations, but in most cases the principal is repaid at the end of period and interest payments are monthly based. In case of incomplete month, interest will be calculated by our system proportionally to the number of days in this certain month.
Please note that all detailed information is available in project descriptions. You are always welcome to contact our Support Team if you have more questions.
No, you can’t, otherwise it would be fairly difficult for us to provide the completion of the pool. However, in accordance with the provisions of the Regulation (EU) 2020/1503 on European crowdfunding service providers (ECSP) for business (CSP Regulation), we undertake to provide to non-sophisticated investors a possibility to revoke an investment with no penalty sanctions within 4 calendar days when the CSP Regulation comes into force. Kindly note you can do it only twice for one specific project; after the second recall you will be unable to invest in the same crowdfunding offer again.
We categorize investors in accordance with the requirements of the Regulation (EU) 2020/1503 on European crowdfunding service providers (ECSP) for business (CSP Regulation).
The purpose of investors categorization is to protect their interests by limiting their access to risky transactions in case of lack of professional experience. We categorize investors in order to be compliant to the prospective CSP Regulation.
In the context of the CSP Regulation, “sophisticated investor” means any natural or legal person who is:
Kindly note that by default all registered users of our Platform are acknowledges as retail (non- sophisticated) investors. If you wish to be recognized as a sophisticated investor, you will need to provide the documents, confirming your compliance to sophisticated investor status. Please contact our Support Team for more information.
ach investor will have several documents, together confirming its participation in the respective loan and securing its interests.
These documents will be:
The Investor`s, Platform`s and Agent`s mutual rights and obligations are clearly specified in the Terms and Conditions for Investors and in the Agent agreement, which the Investor concludes upon the investing.
Yes. It is always available in your Fundroom, in section “Documents”. The clickable icons of already signed agreements pertaining to certain deals are placed in the list of your investments.
It comes into force when it is duly signed by the project owner as a borrower and FUNDAUS as the Agent, acting in the interests of all the investors funded the same project.
The electronic copies of agreements are physically located on a high security server, corresponding to data protection level as required by financial institutions, maintained by a professional service provider. A regular mandatory automatic data backup process is ensured and reserved copies of all documentation are stored on several other servers separately.
Clickable icons of your agreements pertaining to certain deals are placed in the list of your investments for your perusal.
The originals of the signed Loan agreement and Collateral agreements will be stored by FUNDAUS as the Agent, acting in the interests of all investors. You may apply for a hard copy of these documents; however, these copies may only be certified by FUNDAUS as the Agent. The obtaining of the hard copy may be time-costing procedure due to large number of investors. As we are trying to be “green” and to minimize paper use in our business we kindly ask you not to apply for the hard copies of the agreements unless the event of default of the Project owner occurs. The Platform reserves the right to ask for settling the expenses related to execution and sending of the hard copies of the documents. Please ask for the pricing before applying for this service.
Kindly note that your electronic copies of documents have the same legal force as the hard copies would and are equally binding for all parties concerned. However, if you need a hard copy for any considerations, do not hesitate to contact our support service and we will send you the duly signed agreement by mail.
Yes, all of them. Taking into account current situation in European crowdfunding markets, we’ve decided to position our Platform, based on three pillars: compliance, transparency and security. We believe them to be our strongest and sustainable competitive advantages. Thus, all our offers not only generate stable returns, but are also secured with the 1 st priority mortgage, registered in favour of FUNDAUS as the Agent, acting in the interests of all the investors with LTV is not exceeding 70% of the appraised collateral value for most of the projects. Subject to the liquidity of collateral, its location and constituting parts, risk aspects and other considerations, this ratio can be determined even lower.
Some objects have additional security, such as commercial pledge and/or personal guarantees of the beneficiary owner or third persons.
Please note that, since or second pillar is transparency, all our investment offers contain a complete and unambiguous information on the security provided, including the type of security, its appraised value (whenever applicable and to the extent possible), a copy of valuation document (if applicable), LTV and other information we found valuable and significant for decision taking. Do not hesitate to contact our support service if you need more information or if any questions arise.
Collateral is appraised by duly certified valuators according to the legal requirements of the country of residence of the Project owner or object location place. Since nearly all of the objects are located in the EU, the local valuation standards developed in line with the EU guideline and therefore are uniform; besides that, in most of cases the valuation companies involved are internationally recognized brands. Subject to necessity, the Platform retains the right to request on its own discretion an additional independent valuation to be made as a precondition for the placement of the offer on the Platform.
All mortgages and other collaterals provided as a security of your investment are registered in favour of FUNDAUS as the Agent, which holds all the collaterals and is intended for representation of investors’ interests, including court proceedings and debt recovery in case of emergency.
Whether the collateral or a combination of various types of security is claimed in project description, no loan is issued before the mortgages or other types of encumbrances are duly registered in favour of FUNDAUS as the Agent, acting in the interests of all the investors participating in funding of the same project.
On our Platform we have placed a wide range of offers to satisfy the demands of investors with different risk tolerance; therefore, there are projects with different risk-profitability ratios. Following the requirements of Regulation (EU) 2020/1503 on European crowdfunding service providers (ECSP) for business and for the convenience of investors, we provide maximum comprehensive and transparent information about the project and the offer, including, but not limited to the mandatory Key Investor Information Sheet (KIIS). However, the Platform as in independent marketplace does not purport to make any recommendations pertaining to investment decisions. Our objective is to provide maximum transparency and accuracy of information about the project and the project owner, but not investment advice.
All we can recommend for sure, is: 1) not to invest more money than you can afford to lose; 2) to study thoroughly information provided about the project and the project owner; and 3) to seek an independent advice of professional consultant before making any investments.
The investment offers are selected, based on acceptable crowdfunding offer criteria.
The project owner and the project are assessed, strictly following our methodology for Credit risk assessment and fair offer price. This methodology also outlays the principles of determination of interest rate of crowdfunding offer.
It is the minimum amount of structured information on the projects and the project owners to be provided to the investors by crowdfunding platforms in accordance with the requirements of Regulation (EU) 2020/1503 on European crowdfunding service providers (ECSP) for business.
Although this regulation has not come into force and therefore does not have binding force, we undertake to comply with this requirement and provide all information according to Key Investor Information Sheet in our project descriptions from the very first day of operation of our Platform.
This is the interest rate we determine and apply to a loan in accordance with the principles of fairness and objectiveness as prescribed by Regulation (EU) 2020/1503 on European crowdfunding service providers (ECSP) for business and following our methodology for Credit risk assessment and fair offer price.
You are always welcome to contact our support service at any time at your convenience. Kindly send us your inquiry by e-mail or via direct contact form, available from investor’s Fundroom.
We are trying to be in the market with our offers. Most of our projects generate income within the range of 9 – 11%, however, there may be offers with lower and higher interest rates, depending on risk level, collateral available, specifics of the project, etc. The procedure for determination of interest rate of a crowdfunding offer is described in the methodology for Credit risk assessment and fair offer price, while detailed information on each project, including the interest rate and scheduled payments, is available in project description.
Kindly note that, as a rule, higher interest rates are associated with riskier projects; however, this relation is not absolute and not always may be true. Also, it does not mean that the projects with lowest interest rates are “zero risk” projects – there is always certain degree of risk associated with any investment. We highly recommend to contact your own investment adviser before making an investment decision.
The interest rate is fixed for the entire term of the loan. However, ach issued loan is subject to periodic review, especially in case the loan repayments are delayed or there are signs of worsening of the financial situation of the project owner as a borrower, or market downturn. In this case, subject to the result of loan evaluation, the crowdfunding offer may be downgraded and the interest rate may be changed. For more details, please see the methodology for Credit risk assessment and fair offer price.
Monthly-based interest calculation and repayment is the most widespread payment schedule; it is also the option to which most of investors are accustomed and feel comfort with. However, subject to individual needs and specifics of a project, interest calculation and repayment period may be different (quarter-based, for example). Please see the project description for more details; it also contains the planned schedule of payments. You are welcome to contact our Support Team if you have more questions.
Your investment income will be calculated, starting from the date when the “money on hold” changes its status to “real investment” and you receive an e-mail notification. This will be the so-called “0 point” which means than next day you will be due interest for one day (proportionally to the number of days in a certain month if interest is calculated on monthly basis), etc. This corresponds to the day when the loan is issued to the investor.
Please note that there may be a minor gap (from a few business days up to 3 weeks) between pool completion date and the date when your “money on hold” turned to “real investment” – this is due to the certain requirements the project owner needs to fulfil before the loan is physically issued (e.g. registration of collateral, etc.).
As a rule, it is repaid at the end of investment period, which is usually from 6 to 24 months, in some cases up to 36 months, with the last interest payment. It corresponds to the nature and logics of business loan which is repaid upon project implementation, when the business is delivered to the market, sold or starts to bring regular income. However, in certain cases, depending on specifics of the project, the principal can be repaid in instalments, or there may be an annuity payment schedule when a part of principal is repaid regularly with interest, providing equal total payments each time during all investment period.
Please see the project description for more details; it also contains the planned schedule of payments. Do not hesitate to contact our Support Team if you have more questions.
An additional income you can earn is referral income which is calculated and credited to your investment account for inviting other users to use our Platform services, provided that they make an investment in any of our offers and subject to the terms and conditions. Please see our referral system description for more information.
Loan agreement has a provision that a penalty sanction is applied/calculated for payment delays.
In case the payment delay exceeds 90 days, the loan is considered to b defaulted. In this case, debt recovery procedure is applied, which is also described in the Terms and Conditions for Investors. Kindly note that additional commission fees are applicable to investors in this case. Please see our Price List for more details.
In the event of a delay in the performance of a financial obligation by the Project owner – a fine in the amount of 0.2% (two tenths of a percent) of the outstanding payment amount per each day of delay is applied. The collected amount is distributed between the investors proportionally to their share in the loan.
In the emergency situation of debt recovery, the investors will be charged fees in accordance with our Price List for the Company to be able to initiate and complete debt recovery procedure. The amounts mentioned above are then withheld from the funds collected from the project owner as a result of the debt collection procedure to compensate the investors. The investors will be provided with the detailed report on the expenses and calculations of the amounts withheld.
It is also recommended to seek for an assistance of your independent financial adviser before taking an investment decision in case you have doubts or concerns.
Yes, your income statement is available for a download from your Fundroom. You may choose to download your income statement for previous year or any other selected period.
We do not calculate or withhold taxes from individuals (including self-employed), except for the residents of Estonia. According to Individual Income Tax Act of the Republic of Estonia, individual income tax at a flat rate of 20% is applicable to all income, including interest income, received by the residents.
If you are an individual, but not a resident of the Republic of Estonia, no income tax will be calculated or withdrawn by the Platform. Kindly note that you bear your own responsibility pertaining to income tax payments that may arise in your jurisdiction, depending on your local legislation.
Legal entities are subject to corporate tax discharge in their country of registration/residence at the rate and according to the terms and conditions as provided for in their national law.
As regards individuals (including self-employed), a flat rate of 20% shall be applied to Estonian residents only according to Individual Income Tax Act of the Republic of Estonia and withheld by our Platform.
The income earned by the individuals who are the residents of other countries may be subject to income tax in their jurisdiction according to their local individual income tax rates.
There may be a difference in local corporate tax rates for legal entities that are subject to corporate tax discharge in their country of registration/residence. We do not calculate and withhold income tax from companies.
We calculate and withhold taxes only from those individuals who are the residents of the Republic of Estonia, at a flat rate of 20% according to Individual Income Tax Act of the Republic of Estonia.
Individuals, who are the residents of other countries, shall pay income tax at the rate as stated for according to their local individual income tax law.
Legal entities are subject to corporate tax discharge in their country of registration/residence at the rate and according to the terms and conditions as provided for in their national law.
Estonian resident companies and the permanent establishments of foreign entities (including branches) are subject to 20% income tax only in respect to all distributed profits. Starting from January 1, 2018 the corporate income tax rate on regular profit distributions was lowered from 20% to 14% in cases where dividends are paid to legal persons. There is no corporate income tax on retained and reinvested profits.
You can withdraw any amount of funds from your Fundroom, not exceeding your account balance, at any time. To withdraw funds, you need to enter the section “Withdrawals” in your investor cabinet, to choose the amount to need to withdraw and a bank account you wish to withdraw to (in case you have several) and click “confirm”.
Kindly note that to make a withdrawal you need to have at least one bank or payment account, confirmed by our payment service provider, Lemonway SAS. To confirm your account, you will need to input your IBAN and upload a bank account statement for any time period, even one day. This is just to confirm that the account is yours. In your Fundroom, you will find a detailed instruction. Next time, you will be able to use the same account for withdrawal with no additional confirmations.
As soon as you complete your withdrawal request, it is processed automatically by our system and payout order is sent to our payment service provider, Lemonway SAS. The wire transfer from your VIBAN opened with Lemonway to your conventional bank or payment account will be made as soon as it is approved by Lemonway side.
The time when you receive the fuds on your bank account will depend on the time of the bank wire transfer. Between European banks it usually takes up to 2 business days. Please contact your bank for a more information.
There are no minimum and maximum amounts for withdrawals, provided that you have a sufficient investment account balance and bank account(s), verified by our system.
However, please note that the Platform retains the right to ask you for additional information or documentation at any time, also while processing your withdrawal request, in case of any suspicious actions regarding AML, other criminal offence or violation that will be considered as such on its own consideration.
Yes, provided that these accounts have been approved by our payment service provider, Lemonway SAS, in accordance with the instruction for withdrawal, given in your Fundroom. If you wish to use a new account for the first time, you will need to input your IBAN and upload a bank account statement for any time period, even one day. This is just to confirm that the account is yours.
Next time, you will be able to use the same account for withdrawal with no additional information to be provided. If you have several confirmed accounts, you will be able to choose one for withdrawal from a droplist.
Yes, we do, and the main purpose of these commissions is to cover our expenses for pay-ins and payouts, charged by our payment service provider, Lemonway SAS. Please see our current commissions that will be applied to your withdrawal in our Price List.
Kindly note that, despite the absence of any Platform fees, your bank may charge commissions for the processing of incoming payments; thus, it is advisable to contact your bank for more detailed information.
Yes, you can withdraw this income as soon as it is credited to your investment account. The proceeds from referral program are added to your investment account automatically and summed up with your current account balance just the same way as any other proceeds.
Yes, you can withdraw any amount of funds from your investment account, up to the total amount of your account balance, at any time.
Your investment account will not be closed because of withdrawing the total amount of funds as the account balance becomes zero. You will still be able to fund your account and renew operations on the Platform or receive and withdraw your referral income.
However, your investment account will be closed if you remain inactive (no operations with the investment account are made) within one calendar year.
No, you can’t. As your withdrawal request is completed, the information is automatically sent to our payment service provider, Lemonway SAS, as a payout order. Technically, we are unable to recall this instruction. But you can credit your account again anytime.
Referral system is an opportunity for registered Platform users to receive an additional income for inviting other internet users to start using our services by means of a link or banner, generated by our system, assigned to your user’s ID and placed in your personal cabinet for your convenience and perusal.
To start earning referral income, all you need is to be a registered and approved Platform user. It is not mandatory to make investments via our Platform.
To withdraw your referral income like any other income, you will need to have a bank or payment account, verified and confirmed by our payment service provider, Lemonway SAS. You will find a more detailed instruction in your Fundroom.
You can share it with other users of your choice by simple “copy-pasting” this link and sending it by e-mail or messenger or placing it in social networks or any other internet resources, provided that sharing such links is not prohibited by the policy of the resource.
Kindly note that the Platform retains the right to delete the referral links or banners in case of any violations or reputation risk or suspicions of the above on its own discretion at any time.
The opportunity to earn referral income is limited in time pertaining to each certain user that registered on the Platform, following the link you had shared. According to the general conditions of our referral system, the referral income is calculated for the investments made by this user within 6 months from the moment of registration; however, the Platform retains the right to change this time limit for referral income calculation (to extent or shorten it) as well as to change any other terms and conditions of the referral system or to abolish it at any time. Please see more information about referral system and its present terms and conditions in your personal cabinet.
As per the general conditions of our referral system, the referral income is calculated for the investments made by the user, registered on the Platform, following the link you had shared, within 6 months from the moment of registration. The percentage may vary from 0.5% to 1.5% of the investment, subject to certain terms and conditions; however, the Platform retains the right to change this time limit for referral income calculation (to extent or shorten it), to change (to raise or reduce) he percentage of income calculated as well as to change any other terms and conditions of the referral system and even to abolish it at any time. Please see more information about referral system and its present terms and conditions in your personal cabinet.
Yes, you can withdraw this income as soon as it is credited to your investment account. The proceeds from referral program are added to your investment account automatically and summed up with your current account balance just the same way as any other proceeds.
To withdraw your referral income like any other income, you will need to have a bank or payment account, verified and confirmed by our payment service provider, Lemonway SAS. You will find a more detailed instruction in your Fundroom.
The jurisdiction applicable to the disputes between FUNDAUS and the customers is defined in the Terms and Conditions and other agreements entered into between the parties. By default, it is the Estonian jurisdiction as FUNDAUS is an Estonian company. However, a different jurisdiction may be chosen by the written agreement of the parties involved in the dispute, provided that there no special restrictions arising from the Law.
The Platform is acting in accordance with the law of the Republic of Estonia and European Union legal regulation related to provision of crowdfunding services. The main regulating act is Regulation (EU) 2020/1503 on European crowdfunding service providers (ECSP) for business, which becomes binding for all crowdfunding platforms, operating in the territory of the EU, starting from 10 November, 2023, when the transition period given to ensure compliance with mandatory requirements of the Regulation expires.
The Platform also complies with requirements of the AML legal regulation and GDPR. The Loan agreements and Collateral agreements and mutual relationship between the Platform, FUNDAUS as an Agent, investors and project owners as borrowers are subject to Civil and Commercial law. The Platform also observes tax regulation and tries to inform the Investors on their obligations related to taxation of the income received on the Platform. The Platform's legal advisors follows the updates of the law in order to ensure that the Platform is fully compliant with all the applicable legal requirements.
The Agent is Platform’s operating company FUNDAUS OÜ. In some of the documents, such as Agent agreement it is named “Agent” to separate its specific functions of acting and holding the property in the interests of another person, and especially to provide collateral Agent services to investors. The Agent, based on the Agent Agreement and the Investor's instruction for funding, acts as a lender and a mortgagee within the Loan Agreement concluded with the project owner. It is made in order to register mortgage to secure the project owner’s liabilities to Investors and to make the provided collateral secure, legal, and enforceable in the event of default of the project owner. With a lot of investors participating in the financing of the one project together this would not be possible to do without the Agent. The Agent is obliged to transfer the amounts received from the project owner or in the result of sale of the collateral to the investors in accordance with conditions of the Agent Agreement. In the event of default of the project owner, the Agent may go to the court and enforce the collateral in its own name, but in the interests of the investors.
The possible enforcement procedures in the event of default of the project owner may take unpredictable period of time, as this depends on the jurisdiction of the project owner, the country where the pledged property is placed and where the mortgage is registered, however, the success of the proceedings is nearly guaranteed, because the mortgage over the property is registered in accordance with legal requirements of the respective jurisdiction, a legal advice of the local lawyers is taken into account and the necessary measures to be taken in case of the bad scenario are duly planned upon the assessment of the project prior to its placement on the Platform. LTV shall also always be "on the investors' side". Depending on the concrete situation the local lawyers may also be involved into the debt collection procedure. The information on possible terms may be made available for the Investors in each case separately.
The main rule is that the project owner shall cover all the expenses related to court proceedings and other measures taken by the Agent as a result of its default. However, the Agent shall apply the fees to investors to cover these actions taken in favour of the investors. This may be necessary for appointing the additional legal advisors, attorneys, or other specialists. If the event of default occurs, the Platform will notify the investors while the fees applicable are reflected in our Price List.
When the debt is recovered, the fees, initially charged from the investors, where it is possible, will be collected from the project owners as a part of debt collection proceeds, to compensate the investors.
Any client of the Platform is entitled to submit a compliant if it is unsutisfied with the services provided. The Platform will take all the compliants seriously, provided that they are executed and submitted in accordance with reqirements specified in the Compiants handling policy. Please note that the compliant shall be submitted before bringing any disputes to the court against the Platform or the Agent. All the compliants will be reviewed and responsed within the terms stated in the mentioned policy. Please read it here. FUNDAUS will do it best to satisfy its clients - so, please don't hesitate to inform us if something went wrong - and we will fix it as soon as possible!
All investments are exposed to a variety of risks and our offers are not exceptional in this regard. The presence of a marketable collateral (real estate) and low loan-to-value (LTV) ratio can mitigate investor’s risks, but it is impossible to eliminate all risks pertaining to your investment. The important issues you need to solve before making an investment are: a) the determination of risk-profit level of your comfort, as more risky projects, as a rule, offer higher returns and vice versa; and b) deciding about the maximum level of loss that you can afford without significant harm to your budget and life quality.
We strongly recommend: 1) not to invest more money than you can afford to lose; 2) to investigate thoroughly information provided about the project and the project owner; and 3) to seek an independent advice of professional consultant before making any investments.
Please note: no information on the Platform web-site and/or our documents is purported to be an advice or recommendation to make an investment and, therefore, shall never be treated as such.
All investments are exposed to a variety of risks and our offers are not exceptional in this regard. The presence of a marketable collateral (ex. real estate) and low loan-to-value (LTV) ratio can mitigate investor’s risks, but it is impossible to eliminate all risks pertaining to your investment. The important issues you need to solve before making an investment are: a) the determination of risk-profit level of your comfort, as more risky projects, as a rule, offer higher returns and visa versa; and b) deciding about the maximum level of loss that you can afford without significant harm to your budget and life quality.
We strongly recommend: 1) not to invest more money than you can afford to loose; 2) to study thoroughly information provided about the project and the project owner; and 3) to seek an independent advise of professional consultant before making any investments.
Please note: no information on the Platform web-site and/or our documents is purported to be an advice or recommendation to make an investment and, therefore, shall never be treated as such.
All investments are exposed to certain risk, including the investments you make via a crowdfunding platform. Two main categories of risk are property value decrease risk and project owner risks. For the detailed risks description and disclaimer please see our Risk Description.
This will not affect the investors, as all investors’ funds that have been transferred to the Platform, but not been lent to the project owners, are held on segregated and individual VIBANS, safely kept with BNP Paribas or other European banking institutions, being custodian banks of our payment service provider, Lemonway SAS.
A certification of acknowledgement is provided by Lemonway that the funds of the investors belong solely to the investors and will not be used to settle the liabilities of FUNDAUS or other parties. If the Platform goes bankrupt or ceases to exist, the investors will be able to apply to Lemonway directly to claim their funds.
If the funds are already lent and transferred to the project owner, the investors have all the documents to confirm their creditor rights to the project owner. Before ending its operations, either the Platform or its insolvency administrator will manage its obligations, including servicing the previously issued loans until the loan is completely repaid or providing debt recovery in case of default.
In case of project owner’s default, FUNDAUS as the agent of the investors undertakes and executes its functions pertaining to debt to collection in accordance with the procedure specified in the Terms and Conditions for Investors and the Agent agreement. Please note that special fees in case of debt collection are applicable to investors in accordance with our Price List.