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= Lendahand = Lendahand /lɛndɑːhɑːnd/ is a crowdfunding platform for impact investments founded in 2013 by Peter Heijen, and it is the only one operating in 19 developing countries.

The Lendahand platform aims to combat poverty in emerging markets by supporting entrepreneurs in these regions. It helps them grow their businesses, create jobs, and stimulate local economies through investments in projects with significant social and environmental impact. The platform allows European retail investors to invest in crowdfunding projects of local businesses and microfinance institutions. Each crowdfunding project provides repayment from the original investment and an interest rate every six months, with a maximum of 7% annual rate gained.

Europeans are able to invest in a different way, through impact investments via crowdfunding. With these purposeful investments, they can help economies in developing countries grow, making an impact both socially and environmentally.

The company has its headquarters in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and has a direct interaction with Clean Energy companies, Agriculture businesses, and Microfinance Institutions in developing countries. In 2023, over 160 million euros have been invested by retail investors through the crowdfunding platform.

In 2018, 2019, and 2021 Lendahand has been awarded the Crowdfunding Platform of the Year award by IEX. The social enterprise has been certified as a B Corporation since 2022. In those years, Lendahand was able to demonstrate high standards in sustainability, social responsibility, and transparency by being fully transparent and showing congruity with the set requirements.

Lendahand works in compliance with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted in 2015 by the United Nations. More specifically, investments at Lendahand contribute to the achievement of goals such as no poverty ; zero hunger ; gender equality ; affordable and clean energy ; decent work and economic growth ; reduced inequalities ; climate action ; and partnership for the goals.

History
After gaining a Degree in Econometrics and becoming a banker, Peter Heijen decided to quit his job and go backpacking around Asia. During his days traveling, he had the opportunity to meet people who made him realize how stimulating local economies could be a way to fight poverty in most parts of the world. On that occasion, Peter understood that entrepreneurs in developing countries were not able to borrow money from banks or institutions, due to high interest rates and requirements SME entrepreneurs couldn’t meet.

Together with Koen The and Peter Stolze, Peter Heijen founded Lendahand in 2013 with the mission of creating jobs in developing countries by allowing investors from European countries to invest in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and generating a social impact with an economic return.

Between the years 2013 and 2015, Lendahand started its first projects in the Philippines, in Latin America, and in Africa, launching its first solar initiative in 2016. In the following years, Lendahand partnered with Ethex to inaugurate two additional crowdfunding platforms in the following years: EnergiseAfrica in 2017 and PlusPlus in 2020.

In 2022, Lendahand acquired the French crowdfunding platform Babyloan, founded by Arnaud Poissonier in 2008, which aims to finance micro-entrepreneurs from developing countries through microcredit.

In the same year, the company obtained the newly established European Crowdfunding Licence as the first Dutch crowdfunding platform. This license is in effect alongside the AFM license, which was obtained in 2022.

Today, more than 10,000 crowd investors are involved in Lendahand’s projects, supporting developing countries and their economies.

Crowdfunding and Impact Investing
While Crowdfunding is an alternative finance practice that refers to the financing of a project by a large number of people, mostly through online platforms, impact investing is made up of several investments with the purpose of generating a measurable social and/or environmental impact with a financial return.

With their crowdfunding platform for entrepreneurs in emerging markets, Lendahand combines both principles. Through its core values, Lendahand gives investors the opportunity to decide in which project to invest, to choose the amount of money they will invest starting from €10 and their preferred payment method, without extra fees charged. Investors can decide to invest their money in a specific project based on several criteria such as the location, interest rate, social impact, and maturity.

The chosen project will show the investment's social and economic impact in terms of how many jobs will be created or how the investment will help local communities. Once the project is fully funded, the money will be transferred to the local community, and the investment will start earning interest. Investors will receive the repayment of the investment, including the interest rate, of the chosen project every six months.

As of 2023, through Lendahand, €160 million has been invested, of which €110 million has already been repaid. This has led to the creation of 12,212 jobs and the funding of 3,059 projects.

Areas of Impact
Gender Lens Investing

The Gender Lens Investing strategy has been adopted by Lendahand to improve the living and working conditions for female entrepreneurs and women-led businesses.

Through this strategy, Lendahand can support women in emerging markets to become more financially stable and achieve Sustainable Development Goal #5 for Gender Equality, with an impact on schooling, healthcare, and economic growth of their community.

In 2021 Lendahand received a €120 million grant from USAID to reach more women and women-driven SMEs in developing countries, contributing to the reduction of funding gaps between women and men in the next three years.

Financial Institutions

Microfinance and microcredit are two concepts developed by Muhammad Yunus, who founded the Grameen Bank in 2006 and won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on poverty alleviation. These two terms refer to specific kinds of loans given to entrepreneurs who do not have access to traditional bank loans.

Another pillar of Lendahand is Microfinance Institutions (MFIs).

Microfinance Institutions help individuals in developing countries to become financially independent and to experience better living conditions through affordable loans. MFIs support local economies in order to create jobs and provide a way out of poverty.

Clean Energy

Lendahand is supporting investments in Clean Energy businesses in order to ensure access to education, health outcomes, and economic growth of local communities in developing countries.

In 2021, 7,827 solar home systems and 49 solar systems for productive use were installed through the help of projects funded on Lendahand.

By sustaining Clean Energy investments, Lendahand is also contributing to the fight against climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Agriculture

Investors at Lendahand can improve the agriculture conditions of local communities through their investments in agriculture companies. These impactful companies in the Lendahand portfolio support smallholder farmers by providing access to agricultural products and services or by providing smallholder farmers the opportunity to enter the market.

Having a positive impact on agriculture is fundamental to contributing to the fight against hunger and improving the social and economic conditions of local farmers.