October, the crowdfunding platform
Formerly named Lendix, October is a European Fintech that offers “crowdlending” services by connecting individuals and companies. Let’s take a look at October’s solutions and history.
October: How does it work?
October is a business lending platform. Its particularity is that the funds do not come from banks but from a participative financing system, from individuals and institutions. Once the project is financed, the company can pay back its loan monthly to each of the lenders.
The Fintech’s website has two distinct parts: one addressing lenders and the other addressing beneficiary companies.
Lender side:
- A lender can support a project up to a maximum of 20€ and a maximum of 2 000€ imposed by the law. October assures that no management fees, entry or exit, will be applied in this case.
- Registration and verification are required to become a lender. Two means of identification will be required among the CNI, the passport, the driver’s license or the health card.
- Obviously, to transfer money, a bank account number in the name of the lender will be required to transfer funds to October.
- Lenders can be of two types: individual or institutional. Institutional funding combined with founder funding allows October to fund nearly 51% of most loans made.
- Lenders receive a partial payment of principal and interest in the middle of the month. October ensures that any delays or defaults in payment are taken care of.
Recipient side:
- Not every company is eligible for October’s services. Fintech imposes three criteria: the company must be profitable, have a turnover of more than 250 000€ and have been in existence for at least 3 years.
- October offers a variety of different loans adapted to different situations: leasing, extended loan, tourism loan…
- Once the registration stage is complete, the company can apply for a loan. October will respond to this request within 48 hours, and will then allow the beneficiary company to collect funds which will be received one week after the request.
Fundraising and investors
October will have since its inception in 2014, made a small dozen fundraising rounds intended to boost its growth.
The first two will be carried out in 2014 for an amount of 7 million euros then in March 2015 for an amount of 3.20 million euros. The sums will have been raised from Business Angels and investors such as Partech Ventures and 123 Investments Managers.
One year after its 3.20 million raise, October continues its progression and raises, from numerous investors, 12 million euros in 2016. With an amount almost four times higher, it is the symbol of October’s growth at that moment.
And this growth will not stop anytime soon as the crowdlending fintech will raise €18.50 million from several investors including FEDER in July 2017. One year later, October remains in its growth momentum and will raise 32 million euros from numerous investors.
October’s fundraising amounts are therefore only increasing over time. In 2019, the company will make its first nine-figure fundraising: October will receive 100 million euros from investors such as the European Investment Fund and Bpifrance.
The amounts do not lie: October convinces more and more investors of the relevance of their project. The last fundraising in 2020 was a staggering 258 million euros! If we recap, October will have raised 430.7 million in only 6 years of existence.
These latest investments will allow October to conquer new European markets. The fintech is now very present in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy. The principle of crowdlending has convinced many companies to trust October for a part of their financing, while involving lenders in projects they consider relevant.
October continues to grow and has good statistics: for the 2,338 sustainable projects on their platform, €744,421,378* have been borrowed to enable the birth or support of projects registered on this platform.
* Figures as of April 26, 2022
