Fintech enlists help to build blockchain-based P2P lending platform

Lodex, an auction-style financial products marketplace, has partnered with development company Lakeba Group to build out BLOCKLOAN, which has been described as “banking-as-a-platform on blockchain”.

The goal of the platform, once fully developed, is to “solve the big challenge of democratic access to credit” by providing “transparent, easy-to-understand [and] real-time” access to personal finance on a global scale at lower rates than the banks.

As previously reported, BLOCKLOAN will offer personal crypto-fiat loans, crypto equity margin lending and collateralised crypto loans, digital wallets, and debit cards for borrowers to access crypto funds.

Through the use of cryptocurrency-backed loans on a global P2P lending marketplace, the people behind BLOCKLOAN believe that they will be able to eliminate the “unnecessary” fees associated with traditional lending, while promising end-to-end loan origination, matching and management through the use of pooled smart contracts and an automated KYC and credit risk engine.

It is also designed to be “agnostic to the source of funds and has a flexible product interface allowing different lending products to leverage the underlying crypto lending infrastructure”, the fintech stated in its white paper.

The fintech’s plan at this stage is to form “country-specific partnerships to minimise defaults and manage collections”.

Co-founder and co-CEO Michael Phillipou said: “Consumers of traditional institutions need more choice in lending interest rates, and with 2 billion people having no access to credit, something has to change.”

Co-founder and co-CEO Bill Kalpouzanis added: “We are ambitious, but we have proven the model with Lodex. We are proud to create a solution that will have a global impact.”

Lakeba’s chief growth officer, Darren Younger, praised Lodex for its approach to tackling the problem of financial exclusion, saying that it is a “step in the right direction in terms of the democratisation of fund lending”.

BLOCKLOAN recently announced a buy-in from venture capital fund Xplora Capital, which had purchased $1.35 million in tokens.

[Related: Blockchain P2P lender secures $1.35m to fund growth]