150 Crowd Investors Celebrate Lendahand's 10th Anniversary

A special anniversary this year: Lendahand turns 10!
On June 14, we welcomed no less than 150 crowd investors to the Arminius Church in Rotterdam to celebrate this milestone together. COO and co-founder Peter Stolze expertly guided us through a program that highlighted the entrepreneurs and companies you invest in.

Couldn't make it? Or want to relive the event with us? We'd love to recap the afternoon with you.

From a three-person team starting with an impact-driven mission to an international and close-knit team of 30 passionate people:

In ten years, Lendahand has grown into Europe's largest online platform for impact investments in developing countries.

From 0 to 10 years with Koen

CEO and co-founder Koen The took the stage to walk us through ten years of Lendahand. He shared how we started as a modest team of jacks-of-all-trades, working from a hotel lobby because of the free Wi-Fi to growing into an award-winning crowdfunding platform with a team of passionate professionals. Thanks to the trust and enthusiasm of impact-driven investors, Lendahand has achieved much to be proud of. Not only the impact created but also winning three IEX Golden Bulls as Crowdfunding Platform of the Year and reaching €100 million in investments, to name a few.

As you would expect from Lendahand, Koen did not shy away from addressing challenges and areas for improvement. Complex regulations that we, as a crowdfunding platform, want to comply with often make things difficult for us, and the COVID-19 crisis, high inflation, and nearby war visibly affect investment appetite.

Investors generally find direct loans the most attractive, but finding a good supply is more challenging for the Investments Team, and investments are often riskier, resulting in late repayments and write-offs.

Talking with investors during the networking reception was an enriching experience for the Lendahand team. We love to exchange ideas with the crowd and entrepreneurs on how to improve our crowdfunding platform's trust and user-friendliness continuously.

In conversation with Funding Societies

For the occasion, the Marketing team spoke with regular borrower Funding Societies from Indonesia. COO and Impact Manager Vikas Jain shared how they impact the lives of local entrepreneurs and how the collaboration with Lendahand contributes to this. He even had a scoop and revealed the next country where we will be active so investors can expand their impact in Southeast Asia. Check out the project here.

Watch the interview here (duration: 6 minutes)

Sistema.bio on stage
Do you know about Sistema.bio's biogas digesters? Over the past five years, we've crowdfunded no less than 33 projects for the company. Although Sistema.bio is based in Mexico and active in Africa, we didn't have to fly in the global sales and marketing director because he lives in the Netherlands. We had the honour of welcoming the enthusiastic Menno Krijger to the stage, where he shared Sistema's inspiring story and impact with the audience.

Around the world with Opmeer Reports

Ten years ago, Wim Opmeer approached us to see if we wanted photos of the various entrepreneurs on the platform. The collaboration with Opmeer Reports, a traveling photographer couple, soon came to fruition and proved efficient. Once they are in one of our countries, they take photos and videos of the entrepreneurs receiving financing.

It's impressive how they manage to capture the impact visually. Want to watch their testimonial?

Watch their video here (duration: 4 minutes)

After the toast on stage, investors, interested parties, and team members met during a cozy networking reception. Many also looked at the goodies table where you could take home, besides coffee from Moyee and Lendahand socks, a handwoven basket from Carmen. Carmen is one of the Mexican women who can expand her business through a group loan from Sofipa. Thanks to Sofipa, we could order 200 baskets from Carmen, whom we met in 2022 during a visit. Her beautiful work was visibly appreciated.


Thank you to all attendees for your support, enthusiasm, investments, and ideas. We look forward to seeing you soon in person and on lendahand.com.