WA fintech Credi announces equity crowdfunding raise with Equitise

Successful Australian fintech Credi, is revolutionising “the bank of mum and dad” and today announces its intention to raise with Australia’s number one Equity Crowdfunding platform Equitise.

Founded in 2017 by Tim Dean, the WA director of Fintech Australia, Credi is the relationship lending platform that manages lending between known parties. From low-value loans between individuals, parents providing the deposit for a house, seed funding for startups, businesses lending to directors or self managed superannuation funds lending to third parties, Credi provides the solution.

Globally, lending between related parties is a billion dollar industry however with no easy and affordable way to formalise terms and automate the repayments of those loans throughout their life there was a compelling opportunity for Credi.

In Australia, the bank of mum and dad (and family and friends) is the fifth largest lending institution lending over $65 billion in 2017 according to RMIT research. For first home purchases, 50% are funded by family and friends.

A rapid success, over a two year period Credi managed loans of over $100 million from 5,200 users on its platform and is currently used in 26 countries.

An experienced leader in the Fintech sector, Tim Dean has held several senior positions with international fintechs before creating the disruptor platform Credi to provide an end-to-end loan management solution, with its unique product offering delivering lower costs, avoiding friction and preserving trusted relationships.

More than just delivering a lending platform, Credi has seen its users leverage their relationships, facilitating nil cost or low cost loans to friends and family. Data so far reveals an average annual interest rate charged by lenders of just over 3% pa. This means repayments are generally much more affordable than commercial lending institutions, helping those that borrowed, pay off the loan quicker.

Credi is also a complete online solution that aids users in negotiating the key terms of a loan, helps with managing loan repayments through automated direct debits, email & SMS reminders, calculates interest using a variety of methods, and allows the flexibility for loans to be amended or be repaid early.

Looking to raise up to $1.5 million from the “crowd” with Equitise, CEO and Founder Tim Dean says there is already significant interest in Credi from its 5,000 plus user base including keen international investors.

“We have Credi users all over the globe eagerly awaiting to invest in Credi, which is a great endorsement from customers who use and love our platform. Feedback and forums tell us that they truly believe in the product and see it as the needed disruptor to the fintech space,” he said.

“With Australian’s still digesting the findings of the royal commission on banking and financial services, the spotlight is on high cost credit and irresponsible lending. Now more than ever Credi has a competitive advantage to really create some groundswell around what we’ve created,” says Dean.

“Credi was created to make it easy to receive financial support from friends and family as an alternative to expensive, if available, other forms of credit such as bank loans, often with potentially financially crippling fees. Credi was inspired as a result of my own experience and allowed me as a parent to navigate my adult children away from high cost credit and teach them how to repay and manage a loan responsibility and efficiently,” he said.

Credi will issue ordinary shares valued at $1 with Australia’s leading Equity Crowdfunding platform Equitise with its first retail raise and aims to raise a maximum of $1.5 million with a minimum target of $500,000 over about a month period.

CoFounder of Equitise, Chris Gilbert says Credi is the perfect startup to embrace Equity Crowdfunding not just because of its business model but because of its disruptive nature to the banks and other lending solutions.

“Credi has identified a massive gap in the market that the banks and other financial institutions have failed to act swiftly on. Tim and his team have created a truly innovative Aussie fintech that will help a variety of Australians take on a more affordable loan, helping them stay out of debt in the long run,” says Gilbert.

“When we first started Equitise, one of our key motivators was to provide a platform that would accelerate and enable innovation just like Credi. As Credi is a platform formalising loans for everyday Australians, it makes complete sense the company would turn to everyday investors or ‘‘the crowd’’ to raise capital. For this reason, among others, Equitise has become a preferred method of generating funds for early stage ventures and growth companies,” he said.

Credi is a multi channel software as a service solution. The core business model is to provide a global online service for managing relationship lending. Credi currently has two main product channels, known as Credi Premium and Credi Partner. Credi kicks off their first Equity Crowdfunding campaign in the next few weeks. It’s open to all Aussies over 18 years and you can register interest in the offer on www.equitise.com/credi