By Business & Finance 
Flender founders Oli Cavanagh, Jeremy Davies Betancourt and Kristjan Koik
Ireland’s first consumer peer-to-peer finance offering, Flender, is this week’s Business & Finance Ones to Watch.
What is it? Flender is Ireland’s first consumer peer-to-peer finance offering, as well as a new entry in the existing SME lending space. It allows people to borrow and lend money through their own social circles with the confidence of recouping it due to an underlying legal framework with flexible interest rates and automated payments. Flender borrowing and lending is done primarily through a mobile platform, including digital signing of contracts, meaning there is no paperwork. Uniquely, it also makes it possible for businesses to raise finance through their existing customers. How is it funded? Angel funding from notable Irish investors was raised in 2016 to complete the platform and secure licences to trade in the UK and Ireland, and 253 individuals recently invested €590,000 in Flender through an equity crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs.com. Irish investors were joined by individuals from 11 other countries, largely the UK. Flender is the first Irish fintech to complete equity crowdfunding successfully.
Who is behind it?
Flender is the creation of Oli Cavanagh, Kristjan Koik and Jeremy Davies Betancourt. They have been involved in other tech start-ups, most recently DOCLINK, which helps doctors and their teams collaborate digitally and securely, and INSTACOACH, a video analysis platform used by tennis, golf, cricket and swimming coaches around the world.
Future plans…
The platform launched this month to consumers and SMEs in Ireland and is being launched shortly in the UK.
The fintech business currently employs six people in its Dublin headquarters, with up to 23 jobs to be created in 2017 as the peer-to-peer finance platform is rolled out.
Business & Finance, Ones to Watch
Business & Finance, in association with Comtrade Digital Services, recognises Ireland’s most dynamic emerging businesses in ‘Ones to Watch’.
Ireland is alive with a vibrant start-up scene and the entrepreneurs featured are shaping the country’s economic landscape.
